QLocal is delighted to post this response from School Lettings Solutions about increased charges for a popular soccer tournament at Ormskirk School that's threatened with cancellation.

“We’re very disappointed with the response around the statement issued by Ormskirk West End FC in relation to the football tournament.

As a business, we’re passionate about increasing sports participation and our goal is providing much-needed additional funding to schools across the country.

Since the business was founded in 2012, our lettings have provided more than £7m to schools across the country.

We strongly believe schools and pupils should benefit from the revenue which can be generated from facilities being hired outside of school hours and have seen examples of schools opening facilities at a loss to the school.

We work closely with our schools such as Ormskirk School to help provide a safer and more sustainable approach to lettings.

The booking request which has received complaints was for 60 teams to be on school premises with more than 600 children playing football and up to 1,500 people on site over the course of the tournament, which totalled 19 hours of facility hire.

As such, we would need to provide a minimum of three staff - which hasn’t been provided in previous years - to ensure the smooth running of the tournament and safety of all attendees.

We are competitively priced in every school and region we enter and, following extensive research in each area, typically charge a below market rate as we’re committed to building a sustainable model for schools, communities and hiring groups.

The cost of £1,000 for facilities hire for the 60-team weekend tournament is calculated from direct staffing costs, revenue for the school and booking management.

We commit to making gradual price rises with our hirers and work closely with groups who are regular users of school facilities to manage any increases over time."

How they can talk of gradual price rises when the costs have apparently increased from around £200 to £1000 beats me. No wonder the football club have had to look elsewhere.

There is mention of three staff members "which have not been provided in previous years" - but the event has run successfully for years so this seems to be the underlying cause.

It seems that community groups that can call on significant volunteer help to run such popular events are discriminated against by the approach taken by School Lettings Solutions. Ormskirk School could have received a good boost to their finance and Ormskirk West End paid a higher fee - say £350- by cutting out these unhelpful middlemen.

Awful statement from them.
Lost all credibility when they called an £800 rise a "gradual increase"