Leisure Centre Management Gets New Faces

16 February 2011, 16:19 | Updated: 2 March 2011, 12:51

Daventry Active Ltd (DAL) is welcoming new faces to its management this spring as it continues its work to improve local leisure services.

The company took over the running of Daventry Leisure Centre and Sports Park in June last year, with volunteers from the local community recruited at short notice to the Board of Directors to establish the business and oversee a smooth transition from the previous operators, SOLL Leisure.

After steering DAL through an initial seven-month period, the original Board members are now handing over the reins of the company to new directors with other areas of expertise to build further on the achievements at the centre.

The newly-appointed Board directors include Julie Seddon, who is Director of Environment and Culture at Northampton Borough Council which includes leisure services, and Anita Cacchioli, a management consultant and director and trustee of Skills Active - the Sector Skills Council for Active Leisure, Learning and Well-being.

Councillor Alan Hills will continue as a DAL Board representative for Daventry District Council, which owns the leisure centre in Lodge Road and sports park in Browns Road.

Cllr Hills said: “We would all like to thank Roland Iacovides, Martin Barnwell, Rob Eddon and Jo Caddoo who stepped in at very short notice in June to become Board members for DAL and have since dedicated much of their own personal time towards Daventry Active Ltd.  We are extremely grateful for everything they have done for the company and we will continue to build on their hard work towards improving leisure services in Daventry District for the benefit of the community.”

The newly-appointed Daventry Active Board of Directors include:

Anita Cacchioli

Anita is Director of ANCA  Management Resources Ltd,  an independent Thames Valley-based business which specialises in delivering measurable business benefits through management consultancy, corporate and executive coaching and interim management support. Anita is a director and trustee of Skills Active- the Sector Skills Council for Active Leisure, Learning and Well-being, working with the sport, fitness, play work, the outdoors and caravan sub-sectors. She is a former director (chairman) of Reading UK CIC, (the economic development company for Reading and emerging local enterprise partnership) and former director and trustee (chairman)of the institute of Sport and Recreation Management.  Anita also undertook the Northampton review of leisure.

Julie Seddon

Julie joined Northampton Borough Council in March 2009 as Director of Environment and Culture, which includes leisure services.  She has responsibility for waste, grounds and street care as well as most of the Borough’s other front line services. Julie has 30 years of experience in local government. She started her career in 1979 with Liverpool City Council before moving to two other Merseyside authorities, Knowsley and Sefton.  Seven years ago she left her native county to join Stoke on Trent City Council, first as Head of Customer and Neighbourhood Services and then as Director of Community Services.  She stayed in Staffordshire for five years before taking up her current job in Northampton.