A grant of £280,000 secured by the Royal Borough has been used to help reopen its leisure facilities.
The funding came from the Government’s and Sport England’s National Leisure Recovery Fund as leisure centres opened from Monday 29 March for outdoor activities and for some pre-booked indoor activities from Monday 12 April.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the borough’s six centres, which are run by Leisure Focus, had been closed for a number of months and the money is an essential contribution towards their reopening and re-establishing programmes for users.
The funding has gone towards essential maintenance and investment in new equipment - including gym equipment, a new marquee to support COVID-19 secure activity and additional cleaning equipment. The money has also been used to fund the set up and delivery of a blended programme of leisure activities both in centres and online.
Councillor Samantha Rayner, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for resident and leisure services, said: “It has been a difficult year for our leisure centres, which have spent a large amount of time closed because of the pandemic, but this funding has helped significantly as they have reopened their doors.
“Leisure services play a vital role in helping our communities stay healthy and active and this has taken on added importance as we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
“During the closure period staff have worked incredibly hard in making improvements to the centres to welcome residents back, and the funding has been vital for this.
“Please come and enjoy the wide range of activities on offer at our centres.”
The council would like to thank Leisure Focus for its support with the COVID-19 response in the borough. Lateral flow testing has been taking place at both Braywick Leisure Centre and Windsor Leisure Centre. Leisure Focus has also supported our local contact tracing service and the Community Collect home testing scheme.
The all-weather pitches and hard courts at Braywick, Charters, Cox Green and Furze Platt Leisure Centres reopened on Monday 29 March.
Leisure centre staff are on hand to make sure everyone follows COVID-19 safety guidelines, and are also sanitising any high touch point areas.
The centres reopened for indoor activities from Monday 12 April with their normal opening hours.
To make a booking email
bookings@leisurefocus.org.uk or book via the Leisure Focus app.
For more information please visit:
www.leisurefocus.org.uk
