Edinburgh Leisure announces further venues to reopen

Edinburgh Leisure announces further venues to reopen and new ‘what to expect’ video

Edinburgh Leisure has added a further two venues, Leith Victoria and Gracemount Leisure Centre to its list of venues that will reopen on Monday, 14 September 2020. 

These will join the already announced venues of the Royal Commonwealth Pool, Drumbrae Leisure Centre, Craiglockhart Leisure and Tennis Centre, and Ainslie Park.

Edinburgh Leisure’s other venues will be opening up on an incremental basis over the next few weeks after this.  Their six golf courses and outdoor tennis courts at the Meadows and Craiglockhart are already open too.

In preparation for helping customers understand what to expect when Edinburgh Leisure reopens its venues, they have produced a helpful ‘walk-through’ video, which is now live on the Edinburgh Leisure website.

There are also some helpful guidelines for each of the activities:  swim, gym, fitness class and tennis and badminton booking.

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: 

https://www.edinburghleisure.co.uk/fitness-at-home/reopening-plans

While some leisure venues have reopened their venues on Monday, Edinburgh Leisure is different from some organisations/companies who might operate just one or two venues, which might make it easier for them to open yesterday.

However, Edinburgh Leisure has such a diverse range of venues and bringing venues and services back to life in a new Covid-19 environment, after being closed for five months, is a big and complex task.

It is, unfortunately, not just a case of reopening doors again. Whilst properties and pools have been maintained during the course of lockdown, we furloughed over 900 staff during this time.  We only kept a small cohort of staff working throughout the lockdown, in a bid to manage costs. In the main, this has been senior operations management, finance, and our maintenance team.

To ensure the safety of our customers and staff, and before we can reopen our doors, we need to ensure that our staff’s compliance training is refreshed and any qualifications are current.

We also need to prepare each venue individually, with the necessary signage, sanitisation stations, and ensure they comply with any Covid guidelines.  Pools also need to be cleaned and heated to an acceptable level, which can take up to a week and gyms, fitness studios and courts prepared to allow for social distancing.

Perhaps more than ever before there is recognition of the importance and value of good health. Edinburgh Leisure remains committed to supporting and enabling the citizens of Edinburgh to live active and healthy lives, working with the City of Edinburgh Council to deliver on our shared goals to achieve this.

In summary:

• When we do re-open (as per our golf courses) – venues will look different, services will change, the activity programme will be different, the Edinburgh Leisure experience will be different. In short, everything will have to adapt and change to ensure a safe operating environment for customers and employees. For example: all activities will be bookable to allow for track and trace and we will be cashless. However, we will continue to provide an enjoyable experience for our customers.
• The senior management team at “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.”
• Since opening on 4^th June Edinburgh Leisure golf has been performing very well. We have undoubtedly benefited from the good (in the main) weather, people having more time, a lack of alternative activities and, also the 5 mile travel restrictions that were in place for the first three months of lockdown. The gradual relaxation of lockdown measures has of course changed things e.g. more people are returning to work and golfers can travel freely to other courses but golf has continued to perform well. So, the golf income has been a big positive amidst all the financial challenges and uncertainties facing Edinburgh Leisure and has helped to reduce our monthly financial deficit.