THREAT TO GYMS
SCOTLAND’S “outraged” gym and fitness industry fears some parts of the sector could fold as the shutdown passes four months.
With no clients or income, many businesses have now exhausted Government grants and loans.
Thousands of jobs could go and communities could lose businesses whose main goals are physical and mental health.
Similar businesses in Northern Ireland have reopened and gyms in England follow today but there is still no route map from the Scottish Government.
The David Lloyd chain has eight outlets in Scotland.
Michelle Chambers-Cran, its manager for Scotland, urged the Government “to reconsider”.
She added: “We invite Nicola Sturgeon and her advisory team to visit one of our clubs to see first-hand the invaluable health facilities we offer the community and the measures that we are putting in place to safeguard our members and team.”
Smaller concerns like the New Life Gym in north Glasgow have also been closed since before the official lockdown.
Owner David Galbraith said: “The statement from Nicola
Sturgeon has caused outrage within the community. We closed before it was officially advised by the Government as we believed at the time they weren’t acting fast enough. We believed we were doing the right thing for the greater good.
“Now, we are hearing that gyms are not even being looked at. As everything we do revolves around health, we are disgusted the Scottish Government has allowed pubs to reopen ahead of us and people are allowed to travel without quarantine.
“It simply doesn’t make sense and goes against the ‘save lives, save the NHS’ narrative that has been fed to us.
“We also haven’t heard of any additional support coming our way in terms of finances, yet other sectors are receiving millions of pounds of funding.
“We have been completely overlooked and I believe part of it is down to class and how the people in the Government view businesses like ours.”
On Thursday, Sturgeon said: “Our priority over the next few weeks is to get schools back and giving shielding people their lives back again. That means we may have to take slightly longer in doing other things.”