Learn to swim and fitness classes a hit for sports and leisure trust

Fife Sports and Leisure Trust has welcomed the latest attendance figures to leisure centres across Fife.

Figures released by the charitable trust – which manages 14 facilities – for April 2017 to March 2018 show there were more than 2.5 million attendances to its centres.

Stand-out areas include the trust’s Learn to Swim programme which saw more than 6,000 people sign up to swimming lessons in a year when the organisation launched its own aquatic strategy.

A recently-launched fitness class programme also proved popular with participation up 8% and online bookings up 11%.

Over-60s are visiting in greater numbers, with an increase of 3% on last year, while the Daytime Active concession scheme for jobseekers saw a rise of 4%.

Active Options 2, a referral-based programme for people with long-term health conditions, saw attendances rise by 5%, and Move More Fife, which supports people during and after cancer, increased by 2%.

Ed Watson, trust chief executive, said: “The trust has seen some challenges this year with winter weather conditions affecting centre openings and usage of outdoor facilities.

“We have also experienced some temporary closures at some sites for refurbishment works and there has been greater competitive pressure from private gyms within the region.

“However, we also announced this year we are investing £1.1 million to upgrade 12 of our gyms with the latest state-of-theart equipment which will deliver real benefits for customers.”

There have been 22,766,544 visits to date in the past decade.