Two leisure centres run by the Isle of Wight Council have seen a large increase in memberships since they underwent major refurbishment.
The council runs a leisure centre membership scheme called the ‘One Card’, which gives customers unlimited access to the gym, swimming pool and fitness classes depending on which card they purchase. Both ‘gold’ and ‘silver’ membership card options are available.
The Heights in Sandown, which has recently completed the first phase of a two-phase multi-million pound refurbishment, has seen a 43 per cent increase in gold One Card memberships and a 150 per cent increase in silver One Card memberships since the new facilities including the Tone-Zone gym and swimming pools were re-opened compared to the period before they closed.
A second phase of refurbishment is currently underway at The Heights which includes upgrading the health suite. Once completed, the total refurbishment of The Heights will have seen upgraded swimming pools, changing rooms, a new-look cafeteria, a second activity studio and a much larger Tone Zone gym. A similar two-phase refurbishment is underway at Medina Leisure Centre.
At Westridge Leisure Centre in Ryde, where a new Tone Zone gym was installed and an additional new squash court set up, gold card memberships have increased by 91 per cent since the new facilities opened.
At Westridge, the ToneZone gym was moved into a separate building and state of the art equipment installed, while the old gym was converted into an additional squash court. In total, the council has allocated £7 million for the leisure facilities project.
In total across the two, there has been an increase of overall memberships of 60 per cent since the new look facilities were opened to the public.
John Metcalfe, Isle of Wight Council deputy director for economy and environment said; “One of the council’s aims is to help improve the health and wellbeing of the Isle of Wight’s population and providing top quality accessible leisure facilities is one way of helping achieve this.
“It is very pleasing to see the public embracing the new facilities at Westridge and The Heights, and I am sure the number of memberships will increase even more once the first phase of refurbishment at Medina Leisure Centre is completed in the next few months.”
When announcing the refurbishment scheme in 2010, the council said the main aims were to promote healthy living and lifestyles, increase capacity so more people can participate and access top class facilities, give the facilities a minimum 25 year life expectancy, reduce running costs and increase income.
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