Children's courses in swimming, trampolining, gymnastics at Chesterfield Queens Park Sports Centre attract big interest from new customers

Chris Wright, operations manager at Queen's Park Sports Centre, Chesterfield.

“Our customers are desperate to get back and use the facilities,” said Chris. “There are many examples where our staff have been stopped over the past month and asked “when are you opening?”, how long are you shut for?” or told “I’m really looking forward to getting back to the gym.”

Bookings will reopen on April 12 for the fitness gyms and swimming at the Queen’s Park centre.

Chris said: “We will also see the return of children’s courses on April 12 (swimming, trampolining and gymnastics). These will also be very busy and over the last few weeks we have received many requests from new customers who wish to book their child onto these activities.”

Gym equipment at Queen's Park Sports Centre will be back in use from April 12.

"We’re always happy to see new faces and extend a warm welcome to anyone who would like to kick-start a new activity.”

Staff have been working hard to help residents keep active with virtual fitness.

Chris said: “The way that people engage in physical exercise has changed significantly over the past twelve months. Taking part in online exercise classes and programmes has really increased. This enables customers to exercise in their own environment at their own preferred time. It’s no surprise that we have had success in the number of people taking part in our online classes via our Facebook pages. This is something that we are looking to continue as we reopen our centres and we are looking at ways we can develop this as a key part of our programme going forward. Given the success of our own online programme it’s also no surprise that we have had people take part from as far afield as South America and California.”

Queen’s Park Sports Centre and the Healthy Living Centre in Staveley, which will also open on April 12, are run by Chesterfield Borough Council.

Chris said: "We are really looking forward to safely welcoming people back into our leisure centres. We would like to thank our customers for their amazing loyalty and continued patience while our centres have been closed.”