Phased return for Fife's sports and leisure centres

Fife’s sport and leisure bosses have revealed which centres will re-open first - as soon as they get the green light from the Scottish Government.

The charitable trust, which manages 14 facilities across the region, will begin by opening the doors at its flagship venues - Michael Woods Sports and Leisure Centre in Glenrothes, Carnegie Leisure Centre, in Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy Leisure Centre.

They will be followed by East Sands Leisure Centre, Levenmouth Swimming Pool and Sports Centre, Cowdenbeath Leisure Centre and Dalgety Bay Leisure Centre.

The final phase phase will see Duloch Leisure Centre, Pitreavie Athletics Centre, Cupar Leisure Centre, Bowhill Swimming Pool, Lumphinnans Sports Hub and Waterstone Crook Leisure Centre welcoming customers, followed by the Beacon Leisure Centre in Burntisland.

This week, the trust joined a nationwide campaign to highlight the serious closure threat hanging over huge parts of the sector as senior figures again warned that the prolonged closure has had a significant impact on its revenues and operations.

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And it urged locals to give them their support as it waits on official confirmation when its network of gyms, games halls and swimming pools can be safely re-opened.

Fife Sports And Leisure Trust had hoped to be back in operation within weeks, but it still has no official launch date.

Now, it has backed Community Leisure UK’s – the umbrella organisation which represents non-profiting distributing leisure trusts – #saveleisure campaign to highlight that nearly half of all public leisure facilities in the UK face permanent closure by the end of the year, unless, local authorities receive urgent ring-fenced funding from the Government to overcome the enormous financial impact of the Covid-19 lockdown period and its legacy.

It operates 14 centres across Fife and face a huge challenge introducing social distancing measures at each one.

Emma Walker, chief executive, said: “Our teams have been working hard to implement the highest health and safety measures in our centres.

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“We have been regularly communicating with customers so that they can see what steps are in place, how they access facilities and what activities and programmes are possible with social distancing protocols in place.

“We know our customers are keen to get back to our facilities, but, we would like to appeal for patience and support while we deliver our re-opening programme.”

“Each of our 14 leisure facilities is different and some will lend themselves more readily to social distancing measures than others. As a charitable trust, we hope that people will understand the huge impact that the lockdown has had on the organisation and we’d like to assure local communities we are committed to delivering accessible leisure opportunities.”

The new CEO said backing the UK-wide campaign was designed to underline the severity of its position.

She added: “We are calling on it, MSPs, local councillors and other stakeholders, as well as the public, to lobby the Government for support to ensure that community leisure services have a long-term, sustainable future.”

The trust plans a roll out programme of openings as soon as they get the go ahead from the Scottish Government.

Scott Urquhart, sports and physical activity team manager, said: “We have been working with Community Leisure UK, Sport Scotland and other industry partners to ensure our facilities are Covid-ready so that customers can be confident that they can get active safely with us.

“We’d like to reassure them that we are working hard to deliver sports and leisure opportunities wherever possible with the many organisation challenges we face.”

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