West Suffolk leisure centres announce phased reopening plan

Abbeycroft Leisure, which manages West Suffolk Council leisure centres has announced its plans for a phased reopening from July 27.

The not for profit social enterprise's plan also includes guiding members through the new ways they will be using the spaces going forwards.

Warren Smyth, chief executive of Abbeycroft Leisure said: "Our aim is to welcome everyone back safely and in accordance with the guidance. The phased reopening means not everything will be open to begin with, but we will be working closely with customers to keep this under review.

"Things will be a little different. We have worked with experts to introduce new measures and procedures and would ask customers to familiarise themselves with some of these changes."

The changes include all users needing to register and pre-book their sessions, all centres being fully contactless for payments, gym sessions lasting no more than an hour and no more than one group exercise class per member per day.

Also an update to all members has been sent out to explain that their memberships, which were frozen when lockdown began, will be restarted only when they are ready to come back.

The dates for the phased restarts are as follows:

• July 27 - Gyms in Bury St Edmunds, Brandon, Mildenhall, Newmarket and Haverhill will open, as well as group exercise classes in those places, using sports halls.
• August 3 - Sports halls open for block bookings via prior agreement and Bury St Edmunds, Brandon main swimming pools will open for lane swimming and club sessions only
• August 10 - Haverhill, Mildenhall and Newmarket swimming pools open for lane swimming and club sessions only.
• September 7 - All pools will restart swimming lessons.

The availability of saunas, squash and soft play is yet to be determined.

For more details on centre specific opening dates, times and activities as well as changes to the way the centres will operate can be found by clicking here.