Newmarket Leisure Centre operator apologises after complaints over cleanliness

A town councillor has raised concerns over the cleanliness of Newmarket Leisure Centre.

At a meeting on Monday, Cllr Lisa Crissall drew members’ attention to recent complaints posted on a social media site claiming the swimming pool changing areas were filthy, doors were missing from lockers and shower cubicles and toilets were often dirty or not working. There were also complaints about slippery floors and staff trying to fix broken urinals, which should have been a job for skilled tradespeople.

“There seem to be a lot of issues there and a lot of people have said they are cancelling their memberships,” she said. Councillors agreed to write to Abbeycroft Leisure, which runs the facility, with their concerns.

TheNewmarket Journal has also been contacted about the Exning Road centre, which underwent a £1.8 million upgrade in 2019, and raised some of the concerns with the operator, including that members’ complaints were not answered.

Tracey Loynds, Abbeycroft’s operations director, apologised for the issues identified by some customers.

“We acknowledge that the cleanliness in the pool changing rooms dropped below our expected standards during half-term, due to the heavy volume of users, and we sincerely apologise for this situation,” she said.

“The changing rooms are cleaned daily and the drains are power-washed twice a week, however, this will be increased to daily power-washing in future school holidays.”

She said deep-cleans were scheduled six times a year to ensure high standards were maintained and one of these cleans had been carried out on Sunday.

Ms Loynds also urged those using the centre not to take buggies into the changing area as they often carried dirt and other material in on their wheels.

“We have now found an alternative buggy park location behind reception,” she said. “Signage will be purchased and displayed accordingly, however, we have to rely on customers working with us on the issue of buggies and keeping them out of the changing village.

“In relation to a slippery floor, we have no records of any slip incidents or near misses, however, we have taken some extra measures for a slip-stop product to be introduced in our normal cleaning routines.

“Staff are trained to resolve minor maintenance issues where possible, however, we use a number of tradespeople to address issues and a plumber attended the centre on Friday to resolve a problem with urinals.”

She added: “We are aware our email contact platform was not accessed correctly in January and some customer emails may have been missed. This loophole has been rectified.”

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