Gloucester GL1 leisure centre pool to reopen for swimming club

A leisure centre has announced it will reopen its swimming facilities for a swimming club to use.

From Monday, Gloucester City Swimming Club will resume training at GL1 leisure centre, which closed suddenly on 29 September.

It is part of the phased reopening after the provider Aspire Trust announced it was going into liquidation.

The pools will not open for public use until a new provider is appointed.

The council is currently working with local partners, including the University of Gloucestershire and Active Gloucestershire, on a phased approach to reopening the facilities until an alternative partner is appointed.

The Gloucester City Swimming Club has been based at the site since 1910 and coaches more than 100 young people and children.

From Monday, the club's young swimmers will return for their regular training sessions on weekday evenings.

In addition, a county gala event due to take place over the weekend of 20-22 October will now be able to go ahead.

Abi Poyntz-Wright, Chair of Gloucester City Swimming Club, said: "We are delighted to have been able to work closely with the council in order to get our training and Open Meets back up and running at GL1."

Councillor Andy Lewis, cabinet member for culture and leisure at Gloucester City Council, said: "I'm absolutely delighted that the swimming club, who provide a fantastic service to our talented young people, can return to their home

"We're aware this has been a worrying time for them and I know they are over the moon to be going back."

Many clubs including local rugby, hockey and football teams have already turned to the outdoor pitches at Oxstalls sports park.

Prior to Aspire's announcement at the end of September, the council had understood that the trust would be willing to continue to operate until September 2024 and had begun looking for a new provider to take on the leisure services from that point.

Gloucester City Council said it was "extremely disappointed" when the trust announced that it would not be able to continue, despite the council committing to the additional financial support that they had requested - more than £1.5m since 2019.

Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust's board of trustees said in a previous statement that the charity had faced some challenging conditions over the past few years and before going into liquidation had tried hard to solve its problems.

The council plan that all former Aspire former employees recently made redundant will be given interviews by the new provider for any new roles, with the intention that as many of them as possible will be taken on.

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