Staff at Grimsby’s Everyone Active Swimming Pool are celebrating after the venue was named as being among the top 10 per cent in the country. It has been highly commended by Quest, the leisure industry’s independent quality assessment scheme which is supported by Britain’s four sports councils.
The Grimsby pool in Scartho Road is managed on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council by by specialist leisure management company SLM. A delighted Ian Portas, SLM’s area contract manager, said the pool had shown a marked improvement since its last Quest assessment.
“Very few leisure Centres in the UK are highly commended by Quest and so this being awarded to the pool is testimony to the hard work of all the staff at the centre.”
Mr Portas also paid tribute to the staff at other SLM-run Everyone Active centres in North East Lincolnshire. “Grimsby’s King George V Stadium, Immingham Leisure Centre and Pool and the Cleethorpes Leisure Centre were all commended by Quest for the way they were run. We feel sure that Grimsby Leisure Centre is set to follow suit.”
Mr Portas revealed that since its launch of the Everyone Active Card last August, which gives fitness fans savings and discounts on the wide range of activities available at the district’s SLM-managed centres, more than 26,000 people had signed up for one.
He said: “More people than ever are visiting these facilities, and thinking and working on their health and fitness lifestyles. The use of the centres has grown progressively each year since 2001 and they now attract more than 200,000 more visitors annually.”
The rise in their popularity reflects the desire of both the district council and SLM to encourage people of all ages to improve and then maintain their levels of fitness. This has involved a significant amount of investment by the local authority at various venues.
SLM recently spent £20,000 on providing new changing facilities for disabled people at both Immingham Swimming Pool and the King George V Stadium and to install special hoists at the pool to lower and lift the infirm and people normally confined to wheelchairs in and out of the water.
Mr Portas welcomed the council’s commitment and said: “We are both trying to develop facilities and services for all customers in the area and are particularly keen to cater for those with special needs.”
Issued on 18.06.08