Gloucester GL1 leisure centre and Oxstalls sports park may reopen ‘within weeks’

Gloucester’s GL1 leisure centre and Oxstalls sports park may reopen "within weeks" under council plans, which could save more than 150 jobs by bringing in an interim provider.

Leisure provision in the city was thrown into disarray on Friday 29 September when Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust decided not to extend its contractwith Gloucester City Council and cease trading.

Initially, city council chiefs felt it would be unlikely the facilities would reopen before September next year after a new long-term leisure provider was appointed.

However, they have now worked on a phased plan to reopen both sites within the next few weeks.

The plan to appoint an interim provider would see the facilities opened on a staggered basis over the next few weeks and the facilities are likely to run on a reduced service initially.

The University of Gloucestershire has already taken control of the sports arena at Oxstalls and teaching is understood not to have been impacted.

The university was able to reopen the arena for student teaching use only as they have sufficient first aiders.

The city council has taken back possession of GL1, Oxstalls tennis centre and the associated pitches. City chiefs are in talks with the university about how they could reopen Oxstalls to community use.

The authority is still working through its plans but thinks it will be able to reopen the external pitches for bookings and allow access to the car park.

Staff will then look at reopening the indoor facilities at Oxstalls and after that they will turn their attention to GL1 which they say is a slightly more complicated building to operate and manage due to the swimming pool.

By the time they reach that stage they hope the interim provider will be appointed to reopen the rest of the facilities.

They say it may still be a partial service as it may take longer to re-establish exercise classes.

City council chiefs want to appoint an interim provider, potentially on a 12 or 18 month basis, and they want that firm to offer a guaranteed interview to all those who were made redundant by Aspire last week. The intention being that as many as possible will be taken on.

The council is still intending to bring in a new provider to take on the running of the services on a long term basis.

Culture and leisure cabinet member Andy Lewis thanked officers for the work done so far in drawing up plans to reopen the facilities as soon as possible.

He said: “Getting these facilities open and allowing our community access to them is our number one priority at the moment.

“We shared the concern and disappointment at the news that the Aspire Trust could no longer run the city’s leisure facilities.

“We are working tirelessly to offer what we can until a new provider can be found.

“We’ll be contacting local clubs and regular bookers and we also want to reach out to former Aspire employees so we can ensure they’re offered interviews.”

Credit: Carmelo Garcia/Local Democracy Reporting Service