Worthing leisure centres to reopen but dozens of staff to be made redundant

South Downs Leisure, which operates membership services at Worthing Leisure Centre, Splashpoint Leisure Centre, Field Place Manor House and Barns and Davison Leisure Centre, will reopen its centres after the Government announced the next stage of lockdown easing.

Social distancing measures will be in place at all sites, but some activities will not be immediately going ahead at some centres and Splashpoint Leisure Centre's swimming pool will not be reopening.

The group's chief executive, Duncan Anderson, said 60 of the 450 staff would be made redundant as the centres take time to ramp back up to full capacity following the end of the Government's job retention, or furlough, scheme on October 31.

He said the company had a business recovery plan that would eventually allow it to recruit some of the jobs lost during lockdown.

“We are delighted to be able to reopen our centres and welcome back our members," he said.

"The changes and restrictions we’ve put in place should hopefully mean that visitors to our centres do so with the peace of mind that they can exercise safely and with minimal risk.

“We expect our members to be understandably disappointed that swimming at Splashpoint will not be opening with our other services. We too are sad to not be able to offer this, but the safety of our customers and the longevity of our charity are the most important aspects here.

"We want to be around to get our members active long into the future and not opening the pools straight away safeguards this to some extent. We will work to get the pools open as soon as we feel it is achievable.”

Worthing Leisure Centre, in Shaftesbury Avenue, will still make use of all its equipment and will offer an extensive exercise class programme in various studios, as well as squash and table tennis and will reopen on July 25.

Davison Leisure Centre will offer badminton, tennis and table tennis, in addition to the fitness studio, while Field Place will offer a number of exercise classes aimed at mind and body, such as Pilates, yoga and mindfulness and will also reopen on July 25.

Splashpoint Leisure Centre will be opening on Saturday, August 1, to offer a number of exercise classes in two different studios, as well as the gym. The reopening of the swimming pool will be reviewed once the charity is happy that safety restrictions in its other centres are working well.

South Downs Leisure operates Worthing's leisure centres on behalf of the council, which owns the sites.