Phased opening planned for Auchrannie sports facilities
The Scottish government has given the go-ahead for indoor swimming pools, gyms and games halls to reopen from Monday, August 31, and soft play centres can re-open from September 14, subject to government confirmation nearer the time.
At Auchrannie Resort in Brodick there will be a re-opening to ensure it is offering a safe environment for guests and team members. The facilities will open to resident guests first so the resort can check that its new procedures are working well in this new operating environment.
Auchrannie hopes to re-open the pools, gym, games hall and playbarn to leisure members by mid-September with other community and non-resident visitors being admitted shortly after this date. Opening dates are dependent on pools being successfully commissioned and reaching the correct temperature after a long shut down.
The resort will be operating with physical distancing restrictions and this will mean reduced capacities in all of the facilities. To manage this safely it will be implementing booking systems for the pool, gym and playbarn. The games hall booking system will remain as it was before the Covid-19 crisis.
Timeslots
There will be fixed timeslots to accommodate everyone and to prevent overcrowding.
Sessions in the gym and pool will be for 45 minutes and users will be asked to arrive ready for their activity, only using changing rooms and showers for a minimum time if they have to.
Opening hours will be the same as before the lockdown. For leisure members, the hotel pool will open 8am-8pm, and the Spa Resort pool and gym from 7am-9pm (10am-4pm and 6pm-8pm for non-members). The games hall will be open from 7am-9pm and the playbarn from 10am-6pm for all users.
Some facilities and activities will be unavailable at the moment. Thermal suites (including sauna, steam and thermal beds) in each pool will remain closed due to government regulations. Gym equipment will be socially distanced and some pieces of equipment will be out of use. Activities available in the games hall will be badminton, tennis, and table tennis. Team games and larger group activities can’t be accommodated in the hall to prevent overcrowding. Catering within the leisure facilities will remain closed but Auchrannie’s restaurants will be open.
Linda Johnston, co-founder and managing director at Auchrannie Resort, said: ‘Our priority at this time is to safely re-open our facilities for the general use of the community, resort residents and island visitors.
‘To accomplish this, we can’t re-start swimming lessons or club and group activities until restrictions are relaxed or removed. We will consider restarting fitness classes with restricted numbers once we have successfully opened access to all user groups.
‘We look forward to welcoming the local community back to the facilities after such a long shut down. We want to make sure that everyone feels safe and secure when using facilities and hope the community will understand the phased timetable for reopening this complex operation as well as being supportive of the changes we have made to ensure our facilities are Covid secure.’