Get ready to get back to the gym. Edinburgh Leisure is opening six of its venues on Monday 14 September 2020 so now there is no excuse not to be as fit as a flea again.
The venues are Leith Victoria and Gracemount Leisure Centre, The Royal Commonwealth Pool, Drumbrae Leisure Centre, Craiglockhart Leisure and Tennis Centre, and Ainslie Park.
There are some helpful guidelines for each of the activities on offer at the six venues: swim, gym, fitness class and tennis and badminton booking.
The charity which runs the leisure venues in Edinburgh has had 900 staff on furlough during the lockdown and will reopen other venues in the coming weeks, as and when they feel ready. They are busy cleaning each venue individually, training staff on Covid-19 compliance and heating up the pools for you before you dive back in. Although other gyms may have opened a couple of weeks ago, the company thought it best to take their time and bring their venues back to life more slowly and surely.
Meantime since June some golf venues have been open and the income from this has been a big positive in helping the company deal with its financial challenge.
Financial staff at the charity estimate that they have lost around £8 million and are in discussions with both The City of Edinburgh Council and The Scottish Government about financial assistance.
An Edinburgh Leisure spokesperson said: “We’ve missed our customers and are really looking forward to reopening our doors and welcoming our customers back. Over the last five months, we’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received and have loved seeing the creative ways our customers have found to continue keeping active while in lockdown.
“All our efforts are focused on making our venues as safe as possible and we hope the guidelines and our video, showing customers what their fitness experience will look like in a post-lockdown world, will be helpful.
“Edinburgh Leisure is committed to ‘building back better’ to a sustainable Edinburgh Leisure and to continue making a positive impact to the citizens of Edinburgh’s health and wellbeing – as we have done for the last 22 years.”
Find out more about Edinburgh Leisure’s reopening plans here.
This video will give you more information about the changes you can expect when you visit any of the Edinburgh Leisure venues.
Main photo above of Drumbrae Leisure Centre by Phil Wilkinson
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.