Full upgrades for leisure centres as part of new contract
REFURBISHED FITNESS SUITES AND TOP RANGE EQUIPMENT
A LEISURE centre in Swadlincote is one of two in Derbyshire to get fully refurbished fitness suites as part of a new contract with the council.
Everyone Active was awarded the new contract to run South Derbyshire District Council’s leisure centres in Swadlincote and Etwall in January, and this started on April 1.
At a district council meeting this week, the company detailed that both Etwall Leisure Centre and Green Bank Leisure Centre in Swadlincote would be gaining “fully refurbished” fitness suites and “state of the art” equipment as part of the five-year contract.
In Etwall, this would include new flooring, audio and video equipment, new spin bikes – which are already in place – and “significant refurbishment” of the “dilapidation” present on site.
Repairs to dilapidated areas would take place over the next two months, the company said.
Sean Mcburney, the council’s director of cultural services, said the contract included an agreement for new gym kit and full refurbishment of both sites, and all staff have been retained.
Simon Fearn, regional contract manager for Everyone Active, said all staff who were not on contracts, while the centres were under Active Nation, are now on contracts and that more staff have been appointed too.
The company will also be employing fitness managers, swim managers, a health and wellbeing manager and other appointments.
He said the food and drink offering at both leisure centres would be improved with a “grab and go” series of options to expand on the current vending machines available.
Mr Fearn said the fact that Everyone
Active already runs council leisure centres in Derby, East Staffordshire and North West Leicestershire means it already has community programmes which it can expand into South Derbyshire.
Its current policy of offering free memberships for people with Parkinson’s, children in care and “care-experienced” people would be rolled out in South Derbyshire.
Councillor David Muller said he received constant emails about poor hygiene issues at Etwall Leisure Centre, saying this was “not acceptable” and “not right”.
In response, Paul Wilson, business development manager at Everyone Active, said: “I have been in industry long enough to know that centres are not always spotless. You will have bad days and it is about minimising those bad days.”
Mr Fearn said that, while his role does not focus on inspecting facilities for cleanliness, if he visited a site “and I see something looks dirty, it needs to be cleaned”.
He said staff retention was important to the company, and its higher rates of pay looked to achieve that.
Mr Wilson said: “We do get a high turnover because many of our staff are students. The sector really struggled after Covid for jobs like lifeguards, because people left these roles to get jobs as delivery drivers or at Tesco.
“There will be general turnover, but at a general manager level this should not change.”
Everyone Active runs 222 leisure centres across the country, including 69 council contracts, employing 14,000 staff, seeing 1.2 million visitors per month and generating a turnover of £315 million a year.
A five-year contract was awarded with the possibility of a two-year extension.
I have been in industry long enough to know that centres are not always spotless Paul Wilson, Everyone Active