Quarry and Market Drayton Swimming & Fitness Centres to reopen
The Quarry and Market Drayton Swimming & Fitness Centres are set to reopen following ventilation work to make sure both sites are COVID-19 safe.
Market Drayton is due to reopen on October 19th, with The Quarry due to follow on November 2nd.
Both centres have been closed since March when the Government instructed all leisure facilities in the UK to shut due to COVID-19.
When restrictions were eased in July this year, safety assessments at both sites highlighted issues around air ventilation, which would need to be addressed for the sites to reopen and be COVID-19 safe.
Chris Stanbrook, Contract Manager for Shropshire Community Leisure Trust which runs both sites, said:
“With the ventilation works due to be completed very soon at both sites, ensuring they’ll be COVID-19 safe facilities, I am delighted to announce reopening dates for the Quarry and Market Drayton Swimming & Fitness Centre.
“Market Drayton will be reopening on Monday, October 19th, while the Quarry will follow two weeks later on Monday, November 2nd. The later date for the Quarry is simply due to the ventilation work taking longer to complete.
“When Market Drayton Swimming & Fitness Centre does open, we’ll be offering a full range of activity sessions, including swimming lessons, family swim, use of the gym and more. At the Quarry, we’ll be opening the gym and the 25m pool initially for lane and club swimming. We are looking into ways to offer swimming lessons and will update customers when we have news on that.
“Although we’re seeing healthy attendance numbers at our other sites, we’re aware that some people are still a little nervous about re-entering a fitness facility. However, as a Trust we can assure customers and colleagues that when they visit a Shropshire Community Leisure Trust centre, they’ll be at a COVID-19 safe venue. With research from ukactive showing gyms and fitness facilities are experiencing extremely low levels of coronavirus infections among visitors, it’s clear that the leisure sector is doing a great job of keeping centres and equipment clean and safe for all.
“I’d like to thank our client, Shropshire Council for their support in getting these centres open, and thank teams at the sites and our customers who’ve shown great patience while this essential work is carried out.”
Shropshire Community Leisure Trust has introduced a series of social distancing and safety measures at all its sites, including one-way systems, a reduction in workout class sizes, more space between gym equipment and a greatly increased cleaning schedule.
The Trust’s facilities at Shrewsbury Sports Village and Oswestry Leisure Centre reopened on July 25th, while its Whitchurch Swimming Centre site remains closed, as it is currently not possible to enforce government social distancing guidelines within the ageing facility.
