BH Live, the South Coast’s leading leisure and event operator and social enterprise, and Bournemouth Borough Council, are injecting over £2.3m into the town’s leisure centres to create state-of-the-art facilities, accessible to all.
This ongoing investment will benefit Bournemouth’s residents, who are among the most active in the UK, and furthers BH Live’s social objective to drive increased participation in physical activity.
- BH Live recently invested £300,000 at the Sir David English Sports Centre to increase capacity of the gym which has been kitted out with equipment from Life Fitness. A new complementary weekly fitness class programme also launched.
- In partnership with Bournemouth Borough Council a £1.2m improvement programme is currently underway at Littledown Centre, the UK’s largest leisure facility, to create a bigger gym with more functional space and two additional fitness studios. BH Live is also contributing £500,000 for new gym and activity equipment.
- This month, BH Live will be transforming Pelhams Park Leisure Centre gym facilities with a £350,000 boost to create a spacious and functional fitness environment.
There are over 1.8 million attendances into Bournemouth’s leisure centres each year and over 1,000 people are benefitting from one of the nationally recognised health and wellbeing activity programmes. These include BH Live’s exercise referral scheme and specialist activity courses for people living with health conditions including diabetes, dementia, heart related illness, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), multiple sclerosis (MS) and cancers.
With a continued increase in demand and participation across the centres, alongside more health and wellbeing programmes, both BH Live and Bournemouth Borough Council’s collaborative investment to keep people active is in contrast to the significant number of local authorities who have recently been tasked with making budget savings of £4.3 billion; which is threatening the provision of leisure facilities and parks across the UK.
Peter Gunn, BH Live Chief Executive who is also Chairman of Sporta, a national association representing leisure and cultural trusts, says:
“With national campaigns including Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’ and ‘Make Your Move’, along with greater public awareness, the enthusiasm for physical activity to improve long term health and wellbeing has never been so strong. Our leisure centres are already some of the largest and best attended in the UK and we want to make sure we keep pace with our customers changing lifestyles and demand. Through ongoing investment, especially at a time when many other operators and authorities are cutting back, we will continue providing Bournemouth’s community with first class leisure centres and encourage more people into participating in an active lifestyle.”
The Chief Executive of Bournemouth Borough Council, Tony Williams, said:
“Partnering with BH Live has enabled Bournemouth Borough Council to maintain and improve the quality of the entertainment, sport and leisure facilities in Bournemouth for the benefit of local residents and visitors. Since BH Live took over the operation of our venues in 2010, participation in physical activity has increased, the quality of facilities and diversity of services has improved, the cultural programme has grown and the cost savings to the Council have been £3 million, with a further £6 million to be saved over the next 5 years. BH Live has also continued to attract footfall into the town through business tourism and consequently is a significant employer sustaining in the region of 4,500 local jobs.”
Councillor Lawrence Williams, Cabinet Member for Leisure at Bournemouth Council, said:
“Our partnership with BH Live is going from strength to strength. Investments in our leisure centres are helping us buck the national trend of cuts to council leisure budgets so that the thousands of residents who exercise in them every day can continue to enjoy the latest equipment and modern facilities at value for money prices.”
For more about leisure centres in Bournemouth visit www.bhlive.org.uk/leisure
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Notes to the editor
About BH Live
BH Live is the South Coast’s leading operator of leisure and event venues – a social enterprise that designs and builds engaging experiences to inspire people and enrich lives. With over 2.5 million visits a year and over £31 million turnover, the organisation is changing lives – placing it at the heart of the UK’s growing social economy. In 2013/14, BH Live hosted 423 shows, sold over half a million cultural, sporting and entertainment tickets, clocked up 1.8 million leisure centre visits and welcomed 88,000 conference and exhibition delegates which contributed over £45 million to the local economy.
For further press information:
Elizabeth Symmons
PR & Corporate Communications Executive, BH Live
Elizabeth.Symmons@bhlive.co.uk