Leisure centre visits soar by 97% after revamps
Visits to three leisure centres in the St Albans District have soared by 97% after £37 million of investment.
And the facilities are now earning money for St Albans City and District Council instead of making losses.
The Council has transformed three key centres since 2011: Westminster Lodge Leisure Centre, Batchwood Sports Centre and Cotlandswick Leisure Centre.
They attracted a combined 1,237,850 visits in the year 2010/11 before the major redevelopment programme. That figure soared in the year to this April by 97% to 2,449,488.
The Council also paid operators £1.5 million a year before the revamp to manage the sites. Now it is receiving £500,000 a year in income from them.
An update on the use of leisure and sport centres is to be given to a meeting of the Council’s Cabinet on Thursday 21 September.
Visits to the rebuilt Westminster Lodge topped one million in the year to April 2017. That amounts to an increase of 666,000 (67%) on visits to the old centre during its last full year.
Westminster Lodge now has 5,400 fitness members, compared to 1,300 at the old site, and more than 600 spa members.
Around 3,500 children learn to swim at the site every week, well above the national average of 1,500 for a typical leisure centre.
Batchwood Sports Centre was rebuilt after a fire in August 2011 caused extensive damage.
At that time it was receiving 102,145 visits a year – a figure that has risen by 150% since its reopening in May 2014 to 255,177 in the year to April 2017.
There are now 1,200 fitness members, double the previous 600, and St Albans Judo Club recently moved into a purpose-built dojo.
Cotlandswick Leisure Centre in London Colney attracted 71,822 visits in its last full year before closure in 2015.
In the year to April 2017, that figure soared by 347% to 320,712 while fitness members have grown from 340 to 1,300.
The Council is now redeveloping its leisure and cultural facilities in Harpenden with the £18.8 million project due to be completed in 2020.
Councillor Annie Brewster, the Council’s Portfolio Holder for Sport and Culture, said: “The redevelopment of our leisure facilities has been a magnificent success story.
“It is quite amazing that visits to Westminster Lodge are now running at more than one million a year. Batchwood and Cotlandswick are also doing fantastically well.
“These are high-quality, state-of-the-art facilities that offer our residents many different health and fitness opportunities, ranging from the all-weather football pitches at Cotlandswick and hot yoga at Westminster Lodge to tennis and golf at Batchwood.
“The multi-millions we have invested in these facilities over the past six years have been vindicated by the soaring number of users and the fact that they are now making a substantial net contribution to the Council’s income.
“It is also very pleasing that we are now well underway with our plans to create a new sports and arts hub in Harpenden which I am sure will be equally as successful.”
Councillor contact:
Councillor Annie Brewster, Portfolio Holder for Sport and Culture, St Albans City and District Council. Email: cllr.a.brewster@stalbans.gov.uk; Tel: 01438 832255
Contact for the media:
John McJannet, Principal Communications Officer, St Albans City & District Council, Tel: 01727 296130, E-mail: john.mcjannet@stalbans.gov.uk