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.”

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.

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.

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!”

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.

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.”

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.”

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.