This is how The Meres leisure centre in Grantham is being kept Covid-safe
Grantham’s The Meres Leisure Centre has successfully reopened with its 1Life team being praised for creating a safe, secure and friendly environment for people to work out in.
1Life reopened the doors to its fitness facilities, including the gym and group exercise classes, on July 27, but has kept swimming pools closed.
After being forced to close the doors of its gyms and leisure centres in March due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, 1Life said it has continued to review, adapt, improve and refine its health and safety policies, procedures and ways of working.
It has introduced innovative anti-viral technology in a bid to protect customers who visit the centre. Electrostatic disinfectant devices apply anti-viral agents which protect against Covid-19 for up to 30 days.
This will be used in The Meres Leisure Centre on a daily basis and in between bookable sessions. It will be applied to all contact areas such as lockers, handrails and cubicles.
Cleaning schedules have been adapted and 1Life said staff have been carrying out regular scheduled cleaning routines throughout the day.
Numerous sanitisation stations have been installed to ensure the highest possible standards of hygiene and cleanliness. Clear directional signage and notices inform members on how to act safely and responsibly.
A safety video has been created by 1Life to demonstrate the safety measures that have been implemented, which include gym layout changes to enable social distancing and bookable gym sessions of 50 minutes to control capacity.
As well as this, sanitiser and hygiene stations have been placed throughout, with revised gym etiquette guidelines and updated safety and directional signage. Also, staff will only accept contactless payments.
The leisure pools, dry changing rooms and on-site cafe have remained closed, with children’s gymnastics and the climbing wall also yet to reopen.
Pre-lockdown, 1Life was often accused of not keeping The Meres leisure centre, in particular the pool changing rooms, clean. When asked what assurances it can give users that it is clean and safe now, a 1Life spokesperson said: “When the pool re-opens we will have a dedicated member of the cleaning team in the swimming pool changing rooms whilst the pool is in use.
“We will be using the electrostatic disinfectant sprayer in addition to regular deep cleaning sessions. The numbers of swimmers will also be reduced to comply with social distancing and to reduce congestion.”
Mark Braithwaite, CEO of 1Life added: “Of course, we and our customers were keen to see our centres reopen so local residents can resume their fitness routines.
“However, public welfare and customer safety has always been our main focus, and to reopen safely, putting our customers first, we had to ensure our team were well trained, the sites appropriately set up and cleaning regimes scheduled.
“The centres within the South Kesteven contract have now reopened and the feedback from our customers has been incredible and testament to the time and resource we’ve invested on their behalf.
“We are looking forward to reopening our swimming pools in due course and helping as many people as possible have access to great local leisure and sport facilities.
“An announcement about the reopening of the swimming pools is expected [shortly]. We continue to work closely with South Kesteven District Council to re-mobilise the leisure facilities across the district in the safest way possible.”
In response to the reopening, 1Life said customers have given positive feedback such as: “Thank you for reopening it’s great to back. I shall be there tomorrow and later in the week….”, “proud to be a member…” and “well done for managing and delivering a safe and pleasant environment”.
