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July/August/September
2008 |
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OPEN
DAY AT WOODSIDE WILL DEMONSTRATE
CENTRE’S STRENGTHS
Watford
Leisure Centre - WOODSIDE in Watford
was officially opened on Saturday
7th June by Sharon Davies and
local rugby star, Richard Houghton.
The open day provided a demonstration
of many of the fantastic facilities
available to the general public.
The
impressive centre, which is operated
by Sports and Leisure Management
Ltd (SLM), is the latest Everyone
Active leisure centre to be launched
and forms part of a 10 year partnership
agreement with Watford Borough
Council. The outstanding range
of facilities available at this
flagship centre include an 8 lane
25m competition swimming pool,
Learner pool, 8 court sports hall,
100 station gym featuring Precor
products, Dance studios, Squash
courts and other external facilities.
The pre-opening marketing campaign
implemented has seen over 3500
local people take advantage of
the range of membership packages
advertised. The take up for swimming
lesson has been equally tremendous
with 1300 youngsters registering.
On
the day over 2000 local people
turned up to try various different
types of activity including basketball,
martial arts, trampolining, line
dancing and swimming. There were
also demonstrations running throughout
the day including water polo,
synchronised swimming and gymnastics.
Swingball UK also attended on
the day to carry out a mass tournament
of the traditional game that many
people will remember from its
launch in the UK in the 1980s.
“The
idea behind the open day was to
get both adults and kids to try
as many different types of activity
as possible,” comments Duncan
Jefford, Regional Director for
SLM. “We wanted them to
see that Woodside can offer fantastic
facilities and a wide variety
of sports that will be available
to the whole community. By running
demonstrations throughout the
day we hope that we have inspired
some of the kids to start up a
new sport and maybe even become
the Olympians of the future.”
Elected
Mayor of Watford, Dorothy Thornhill
who was present on the day, said:
“Looking around the completed
centre, it is clear to see that
we made good decisions about quality.
Local residents now have unrivalled
facilities in the local area.
This new leisure centre is as
close in quality to a private
club facility as you can get,
without impacting on our good
value membership fees.”
Designed
by Studio E Architects the Woodside
Leisure Centre is one which is
both aesthetically refined and
environmentally responsible and
sustainable. On budget and delivered
on time by construction company
Pellikaan, who have built more
than 900 sports centres.
Garry
Stewart of Studio E comments,
“The regeneration and expansion
of the ‘old’ Woodside
sports facility has been a great
challenge for all those involved
– quality and sustainability
have been key drivers throughout
its design and construction. The
‘new’ Woodside offers
its users a variety of uplifting
spaces within which to engage
in a wide range of sports and
leisure activities.”
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SWIMMING
GALA MASSIVE HIT
Frome
Leisure Centre managed by Avalon
Leisure hosted their 3rd annual
Small Schools Swimming Gala on
Wednesday 18th of June. Providing
a fantastic atmosphere of swimming
and fun to 8 Small Schools within
the Mendip area. With such a close
finish leaving only 3 points between
1st and 3rd place everyone was
left guessing till the end.
The local first schools which
participated were, Mells, Nunney,
Hayesdown, St Johns, Berkley,
Leigh-on-Mendip, Norton St Philip
and Beckington. Each school was
represent by between 12 and 14
student, participating in a mixture
of individual and relay events.
Every child that attended on the
day displayed a very high level
of sportsmanship and commitment
towards swimming. Regardless of
the placing every child was presented
with either a medal or a ribbon
for their outstanding achievement.
The Mexican wave and constant
cheering bought Frome Leisure
Centre alive with a special appearance
from the Avalon’s very own
Tiger mascot. Putting a smile
on everyone’s face. Beckington
first school swam into first place,
with children from Berkley school
coming in a very close second
place, St johns were hot on their
heels finishing in third position
overall.
The Purpose of the event was to
Promote and raise awareness of
the importance of learning to
swim and developing water confidence.
Swimming is a vital life skill
for every child’s development.
“ Its great to see such
joy and playfulness with children
in the water, The Swimming Gala
was an amazing day and a very
successful event for all. Seeing
the children’s high level
of sportsmanship and energy was
inspiring to observe. It is not
just as simple as knowing how
to swim. It’s about developing
a deeper awareness and understanding
of water to enable children to
gain enjoyment out of swimming.”
Said Event organiser and swim
scheme co-ordinator Simone Benhayon.
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Serco
Leisure Gets a 2nd Big Tick
Serco
Leisure has been awarded a coveted
Big Tick Award by Business in
the Community (BITC) for the second
year running for positively making
a difference to the environment.
Serco
Leisure received the Award for
Excellence in the MAN Group International
Climate Change category for the
strategic, comprehensive and innovative
approaches taken to tackling climate
change and a commitment to the
sustainability of the environment;
focusing on carbon reduction at
65 leisure centres and swimming
pools across the UK and Jersey.
A culture committed to reducing
energy consumption sees staff
using more efficient heating,
cooling and lighting strategies.
New, innovative energy reduction
and conservation methods are also
regularly introduced, including
bubble wrapping pool filters,
using boilers more efficiently
to maintain water temperatures
and the use of thermal imaging
cameras to identify hidden energy
hotspots.
Keith Thomas Managing Director
said ‘I am extremely proud
that Serco Leisure has been awarded
the Big Tick for a second consecutive
year. It is great to see the commitment
and effort made by Serco Leisure
staff to tackle climate change
recognised in this way and I hope
that we can support our customers,
clients and other businesses in
doing the same.”
Serco
Leisure will be presented with
the Big Tick award on 5th June
2008.
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| WALKING
IS A GREAT WAY TO KEEP EVERYONE
ACTIVE
Walking is often
overlooked as a form of activity.
But now one leisure operator,
SLM, has decided to incorporate
walking into the activities offered
by its leisure centres in the
Bristol area.
The three Everyone
Active centres taking part in
this trial (Henbury LC, Kingsdown
LC and Horfield LC) are offering
walking clubs that are structured
by the fitness staff at the centres.
These walks will provide a more
structured approach to rambling
for those who prefer to partake
in moderate activity outdoors
or who simply want to rediscover
their surrounding area.
“Walking
is a great form of exercise but
so few people actually walk for
enjoyment,” comments David
Johns, contract manager for SLM
in Bristol. “By making these
walks more structured and offering
our members access to qualified
walk leaders we are hoping to
get more people active and enjoying
the local area again. Leisure
centres are the ideal place for
these groups to start from and
by offering walk leaders we can
be sure that none of our members
will get left behind or lost!”
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SLM SITE IS FIRST QUEST
SPORTS DEVELOPMENT ACCREDITED
SITE IN UK
St Paul’s
Community Sports Academy has become
the first leisure centre site
in the country to achieve Quest
Sports Development registration.
The site was recently
assessed and passed with a range
score of 70-75%. The site, which
is managed by SLM Ltd under the
Everyone Active brand, is a dual
use facility with Cabot School.
It offers an indoor multi purpose
sports hall, three outdoor flood-lit
courts, one all-weather court
and a health and fitness suite.
Earle Simpson,
general manager at the site, is
pleased with the results. “We
have all worked hard to ensure
that the Academy reaches the best
possible standards for our users.
The fact that we are the first
in the country to achieve this
recognition is fantastic news.”
Colleen Bevan,
Head of Sport at Bristol City
Council is delighted with the
achievement, “This is excellent
news. I would like give my personal
thanks and congratulations to
all the staff at the centre for
achieving such an excellent score
and being the first in the country.”
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SWIMMING
CHAMPION CELEBRATES SWIMATHON
SUCCESS WITH DC LEISURE
Duncan
Goodhew, Olympic Gold medallist,
made a splash at the annual DC
Leisure conference this month
when he joined staff to celebrate
the success of Swimathon 2008.
Over 1,400 participants took part
in the event held at 57 DC Leisure
managed sites across the UK and
together they hope to have risen
in the region of £150,000
for charity.
Held at The Belfry, the DC Leisure
conference was attended by over
100 key management staff from
sites across the country. As part
of an awards ceremony which recognised
success, Goodhew awarded prizes
to Stourport Sports Centre for
attracting the highest number
of Swimathon participants and
Elmbridge Xcel for achieving the
highest percentage increase in
participation year on year.
Steve Philpott, Chief Executive,
comments: “DC Leisure has
supported the Swimathon as a group
for the past two years and will
continue to do so for the foreseeable
future. The event provides us
with a great opportunity to promote
swimming as a fun, enjoyable sport
and encourage more people to give
it a go and hopefully introduce
it as part of an active lifestyle.”
Duncan Goodhew, Swimathon President,
says: “With a total of over
500 pools taking part in this
year’s event, we are on
target to reaching our £1.8
million goal for Marie Curie Cancer
Care and The Swimathon Foundation.
DC Leisure has once again embraced
this year’s Swimathon and
I would like to thank the individual
managers at all the sites for
their continued support.”
DC Leisure attracted more participants
to this event than any other operator
and participation figures were
55 per cent up on last year.
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Moonlight
Walking with South Ribble Community
Leisure Facilities
The
team at Bamber Bridge Leisure
Centre are demonstrating their
support towards research for Breast
Cancer by taking part in a Moonlight
walk in London on Saturday 17th
May 2008.
Four
members of Bamber Bridge Leisure
Centre are taking part in the
walk including Leanne Havlin Swim
Coach, Laura Cheetham Acting Duty
Manager, Tracey Veitch Receptionist
and Louise Kennedy Receptionist
who will each cover 26 miles along
the London marathon route. However
to brighten up the evening each
member of the team will be in
fancy dress!
Laura
Cheetham, “We are really
excited about participating in
this event and have been training
hard since September 2007. All
our sponsorship funds will be
handed to Breast Cancer Research
UK and we would like to thank
all of our customers for their
support prior to this event.”
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K2 CRAWLEY WINS FITPRO
AMBASSADOR CLUB OF THE YEAR
DC Leisure’s K2 Crawley
leisure centre has won the Fitpro
Ambassador Club of the Year Award
2008 for the most successful relaunch
of group exercise classes.
The Ambassador Programme encourages
health clubs and leisure centres
to increase participation in BTS
classes, which are relaunched
every three months. The programme
aims to promote group exercise
as well as health and fitness
education among users. To enter
the awards each site provides
a case study detailing their most
successful relaunch event with
attendance figures and photographs.
The winning site is awarded a
holiday for two to Club La Santa,
the renowned sports resort in
Lanzarote.
Every three months K2 Crawley
undertakes the huge task of hosting
a BTS Ambassador launch to encourage
new customers to exercise and
retain existing exercisers. During
its winning BTS event, customers
took part in a range of BTS classes
throughout the evening accompanied
by a live club DJ playing uplifting
dance music. More than 60 new
memberships were signed up from
the event alone.
The award was presented at the
Ambassador Reception at Loughborough
University. Tim Burrow, Fitness
Manager at K2 Crawley, says: “At
K2 we make sure that we keep on
top of our programme, ensuring
instructors have regular assessments
and training. We also meet regularly
as a team to go through new initiatives
and to keep the classes unique.
The events we offer are thoroughly
enjoyed by both customers and
staff and I’m delighted
that we have been presented this
award.”
Richard Millard, Client Relations
and Sports Development Director
at DC Leisure, congratulated the
staff on their successful win:
“It’s fantastic news
to hear that a DC Leisure facility
like K2 Crawley has won this award,
especially because of the number
of gyms in the local area. The
staff at the site are extremely
dedicated to delivering a unique
service through their BTS classes
and we are glad that this site
has received this recognition.”
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DC LEISURE ROLLS OUT CUSTOMER
INSIGHT PROGRAMME
Reflecting its commitment
to the ongoing improvement of service
delivery, DC Leisure has completed
a series of customer and staff surveys
being conducted by Leisure-net Solutions
Ltd (LNS).
Mike Hill, Managing Director of
LNS, says: “DC Leisure have
committed themselves to putting
Customer Insight at the heart of
their performance measurement. They
now have a comprehensive programme
in place that gives them and their
clients’ vital indicators
of how well they are delivering
to their customers. This information
has already had a direct impact
on customer service with their average
scores increasing by between 5 and
10 per cent over the first 9 months
of the programme."
Part of a comprehensive Customer
Insight Programme, the initial surveys
of the programme were completed
late last year and included mystery
telephone calls, conducted at different
times of the day, to 60 of DC Leisure’s
sites. A series of telephone interviews
with members from each of those
sites who had visited the centre
in the past three or four days were
also completed.
Among the most pleasing results
were that the average call-Focus™
measurements improved from 55 per
cent to 65 percent in the last nine
months indicating that DC Leisure
staff were judged to be efficient,
polite and enthusiastic. And customer
experience calls rose to more than
80 per cent of customers being happy
with the service received based
on their experience of their visits
in the last month.
Richard Millard, Client Relations
and Sports Development Director
at DC Leisure, comments: “These
second tier results are extremely
encouraging – it’s always
great to hear positive feedback
from our customers. We are happy
that certain areas where we’re
weren’t performing as well
as we’d like have improved.
Due to the success of this survey,
we have decided to continue our
partnership with Leisure-net for
another 12 months.” |
DC
LEISURE TEAMS UP WITH BRITISH GYMNASTICS
DC Leisure continues its partnership
with major National Governing Bodies
by signing an agreement with British
Gymnastics (BG) aiming to increase
participation in the sport and enable
facilities to register as BG Proficiency
Centres.
Ian Fordham, Marketing Director
at British Gymnastics, says: “We
are delighted to be entering into
this agreement with DC Leisure whom
we recognise as being a leader in
this sector. The sector currently
provides gymnastics sessions to
many thousands of children, and
we see this initiative as a means
of assuring quality provision, improving
participation numbers in the sport
and promoting best practice."
“DC's Leisure Centres will
now become gymnastics Proficiency
Centres and will conform to British
Gymnastics delivery guidelines,”
says Ian.
Currently, the gymnastic and
trampolining programmes at DC
Leisure run across 64 sites, attracting
a total of 200,000 participants
per year and the aim is to increase
this by introducing a more structured
programme of classes.
Richard Millard, Client Relations
and Sports Development Director
at DC Leisure, says: “With
gymnastics and trampolining becoming
more and more popular, this partnership
with BG is great news for DC Leisure.
We must ensure that we continue
to deliver a consistent service
of excellence by offering our
customers structured classes and
coaching.”
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DC MANAGER WARMS-UP FOR
5,000 MILE CHALLENGE
A fitness manager at DC Leisure’s
Ferndown Leisure Centre attempted
a 100km run in one day in preparation
for a 5,000 mile charity challenge.
Assistant Fitness Manager, Tim
Harris, who completed seven marathons
on seven continents in seven weeks
last year, took to a treadmill
in the leisure centre’s
reception area for his latest
challenge. He ran 85km in seven
hours before suffering severe
dehydration due to the heat and
lack of breaks.
Tim, aged 23, has worked at the
Ferndown Leisure Centre in Dorset
since April 2005 after graduating
from the University of Central
Lancashire. His colleagues at
DC Leisure are very supportive
of his efforts. “We are
all extremely proud of what Tim
has achieved for Water Aid. It
is a great accomplishment for
a truly worthy cause and DC Leisure
will continue to support him in
any future activities,”
says Richard Millard, Client Relations
and Sports Development Director
at DC Leisure.
Although Tim finished the challenge
early, he still managed to raise
a significant amount of money
for Water Aid: “I’m
now fully recovered from the challenge
and really pleased with my result.
I raised over £350 for Water
Aid, which will buy materials
to build sustainable water access
in those countries that really
need it,” says Tim.
Taking place next year, Tim’s
challenge in the next year will
include running 1,000 miles from
John O’Groats to Dover,
cycling from Calais to Gibraltar
and running 1,000 miles to cover
the length of Mali to Bamako.
He hopes to cover 5,000 miles
in total, a mile for every child
that dies due to water-related
diseases.
Water Aid is an international
charity, which works in 17 countries
throughout sub-Saharan Africa
and South Asia to provide water,
sanitation and hygiene education
to some of the world’s poorest
people.
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GRIMSBY
POOL RISES TO THE TOP
Staff
at Grimsby’s Everyone Active
Swimming Pool are celebrating
after the venue was named as being
among the top 10 per cent in the
country. It has been highly commended
by Quest, the leisure industry’s
independent quality assessment
scheme which is supported by Britain’s
four sports councils.
The
Grimsby pool in Scartho Road is
managed on behalf of North East
Lincolnshire Council by by specialist
leisure management company SLM.
A delighted Ian Portas, SLM’s
area contract manager, said the
pool had shown a marked improvement
since its last Quest assessment.
“Very
few leisure Centres in the UK
are highly commended by Quest
and so this being awarded to the
pool is testimony to the hard
work of all the staff at the centre.”
Mr
Portas also paid tribute to the
staff at other SLM-run Everyone
Active centres in North East Lincolnshire.
“Grimsby’s King George
V Stadium, Immingham Leisure Centre
and Pool and the Cleethorpes Leisure
Centre were all commended by Quest
for the way they were run. We
feel sure that Grimsby Leisure
Centre is set to follow suit.”
Mr
Portas revealed that since its
launch of the Everyone Active
Card last August, which gives
fitness fans savings and discounts
on the wide range of activities
available at the district’s
SLM-managed centres, more than
26,000 people had signed up for
one.
He
said: “More people than
ever are visiting these facilities,
and thinking and working on their
health and fitness lifestyles.
The use of the centres has grown
progressively each year since
2001 and they now attract more
than 200,000 more visitors annually.”
The
rise in their popularity reflects
the desire of both the district
council and SLM to encourage people
of all ages to improve and then
maintain their levels of fitness.
This has involved a significant
amount of investment by the local
authority at various venues.
SLM
recently spent £20,000 on
providing new changing facilities
for disabled people at both Immingham
Swimming Pool and the King George
V Stadium and to install special
hoists at the pool to lower and
lift the infirm and people normally
confined to wheelchairs in and
out of the water.
Mr
Portas welcomed the council’s
commitment and said: “We
are both trying to develop facilities
and services for all customers
in the area and are particularly
keen to cater for those with special
needs.”
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DC
LEISURE RECOMMENDED BY ITS OWN
STAFF
Independent research has found
that close to 90 per cent of DC
Leisure staff would recommend
the company as a good employer.
Conducted by Leisure-net Solutions
Ltd (LNS), the research gathered
the views, attitudes and perceptions
of DC Leisure’s staff via
online questionnaires, which were
completed by 1,700 staff.
The results found that 94 per
cent of staff were happy in their
jobs and had a clear understanding
of their roles and responsibilities.
Staff also understood the business
objectives of the DC site they
were working for and their awareness
of training and development opportunities
had improved significantly over
the last two years with 84 per
cent of staff now knowing which
courses are available to them
within the company.
Mike Hill, Managing Director of
LNS, says: “The research
gives DC Leisure a detailed picture
of its current internal performance
and highlights any areas requiring
attention. The commitment to its
staff is evident through the results,
with many of the figures showing
improvement since research was
last conducted.”
Richard Millard, Client Relations
and Sports Development Director
at DC Leisure says the results
are encouraging, “Investing
in our staff is vital for a successful
business, so it’s important
to know how they staff us. The
findings of this survey will help
us with our training and development
plans in the future.”
DC Leisure will continue to monitor
its partnership with LNS by conducting
an annual staff survey.
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