Bicester Town Council has said "lessons could be learned" from the way the communication of the weekend closure of a well-used sports ground was made.

This comes as Bicester Town Council issued a statement in full regarding the weekend closure of a well-used sports facility on Wednesday (November 13).

The statement follows a public announcement from the council on October 29 that Whitelands Farm Sports Ground would be “closed on Saturday and Sunday until further notice”.

The statement on October 29 said: “The circumstances are both unfortunate and unavoidable and we will do everything we can to return the service as soon as possible.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Bicester Town Council addressed the closure and said it anticipates resuming normal service levels from Monday, November 18.

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The statement read: “Residents have raised questions as to why Whiteland’s Way Sport Centre operated by Bicester Town Council has been ‘closed’.

“Bicester Town Council would like to confirm that at no time has the centre been closed and third-party resident businesses and sports clubs have continued to operate normally.

"We acknowledge that lessons could be learned from the way the communication of the closure was made. 

“On the week commencing October 21, an unforeseen and temporary staff shortage issue arose. 

“Initially this resulted in operations on the weekend of October 26/27 being severely curtailed, with only a limited number of games on our 3G pitches going ahead. 

“All other bookings continued as normal.

“To operate the 3G pitches safely, our liability insurance requires a certain number of experienced and suitably trained staff are on duty whenever the pitches are in use.”

The council said as soon as town council officers identified there was a temporary staff shortage, they introduced “sensible and appropriate contingency measures” by redeploying staff from other areas of the council’s operation to support the facility. 

“We are extremely grateful to our staff members, several of whom volunteered to work weekends and provided a rapid and flexible response,” the statement said.

It added that the council reached out to an external agency to provide temporary staff members to further support the operation.

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“We recognise the impact the temporary reduction in service has had upon residents and customers and we thank them for their patience and understanding. 

“The contingency measures have seen us return to a near normal service in terms of both number of bookings and pitch hours utilised.

“In the interim, ad-hoc and walk-in bookings at weekends may not be available. 

“Bicester Town Council takes the privacy of all staff very seriously, we therefore do not comment on any personnel matters.”