News and jobs updated daily on www.healthclubmanagement.co.uk Edited by Jak Phillips. Email: newsdesk@leisuremedia.com Fife opens £15.3m leisure centre


A £15.3m sports and leisure cent re has opened in Kirkcaldy, Fife, as part of a £55m council-led project to open three new flagship facilities in the region. As part of the Future of


Leisure programme, the centre houses a 25m, six- lane swimming pool with poolside spectating for 90 people, a training pool with an underwater movable floor and accessible family wet-side changing facilities. Users also have access to


Government backs staircase calorie count initiative


Public staircases are soon to be labelled as exercise apparatus when a government- backed scheme comes into force to try and make office workers and commuters across the UK fitter. Trials at three large office buildings,


including the BBC in Manchester, found that signs advertising how many calories you could burn by taking the stairs increased the number of people using them by up to 29 per cent. The scheme is based on nudge theory,


Facilities at the newly opened centre include a 60-station fitness suite


a 60-station gym, a purpose-built aerobics studio, a four-court sports hall, children’s play centre with nearby café and a meeting room. The facility also provides its own health suite and steamroom located next to the pool area. The opening of Kirkcaldy is the first of


three new centres to open as part of Fife Council’s £55m investment project. The


other two facilities will open in Glenrothes and Dunfermline. “The opening of this building marks the


completion of the Council’s ‘Future of Leisure’ project,” comments Jim Leishman, provost of Fife. “These impressive new sports facilities are helping Fifers to live a healthier and more active lifestyle.”


Lack of exercise policy is “child neglect”


An editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) has highlighted a lack of UK policy towards increasing children’s exercise levels, with one of its co-authors suggesting such failings amount to the government’s own definition of “child neglect”. The journal highlighted what it saw as a


lack of action in terms of increasing levels of exercise among younger people, despite access to growing evidence that shows both immediate and long-term benefits of regular exercise during our younger years. It also argued that sucessive governments


have failed to find a successful national policy, with leadership and strategy “totally absent”. “There has been a persistent failure from this government and former governments to meet children’s basic physical and psychological needs,” co-author Dr Richard Weiler, who is also a University College London consultant and club doctor at West Ham United, told BBC Radio’s Today programme.


The new centre will include an 80-station gym


Work starts on Blackburn sports, swimming complex


Work has officially started on a £13.5m sports and swimming complex in Blackburn town centre, which is being built to replace the area’s ageing Waves Water Fun Centre. The development is a partnership


National strategy for kids’ activity is ‘totally absent’


Leisure Connection starts 2014 with ‘1Life’ rebrand Neil King, managing director at Leisure


Leisure centre operator Leisure Connection has announced that it is relaunching its consumer brand as ‘1Life’. Following its official launch in January, the


new brand will be rolled out across the estate of more than 40 leisure facilities by April.


January 2014 © Cybertrek 2014


Connection, says: “We know that the way people use our facilities is changing. We’re more than a gym, a swimming pool, a sports hall. We will be doing all we can to target and engage non-users – it’s an exciting time.”


between Blackburn with Darwen Council and Blackburn College. The new leisure facility will feature a six-


lane swimming pool, an 80-station fitness centre, a sport performance lab and a dance studio. The area’s other existing leisure facility – the Waves Water Fun Centre – will be demolished by the council. The development received planning


permission in 2013, with work hoped to be completed by 2015.


Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 11


which subtly influences people’s habits, encouraging them – rather than telling them – to make the ‘right’ choices. Health experts class stair climbing –


which burns more calories than jogging – as ‘vigorous’ exercise, and studies have suggested climbing stairs for seven minutes a day could half the risk of a heart attack. The new scheme, will see staircases


labelled with calorie totals, was developed by StepJockey and funded by a £50m grant from the government’s Small Business Research.


PHOTO: WWW.SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/ANTOS777


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86