No gym for two weeks

Fitness fans who use the Riverside Recreation Centre in Stafford will be without a gym for two weeks during the move to a new leisure centre in the town.

The change-over period is expected to cost Stafford Borough Council £30,000 in lost income.

Leisure bosses say the new Stafford Leisure Centre, in Lammascote Road, is due to open in May next year.

They hope to keep the Riverside facilities going as long as possible but the gym will have to close to allow for equipment to be moved to the new site.

Cabinet member for leisure Councillor Mike Smith said building work on the £15 million complex was on target.

He said: "We will have to close the Riverside gym for two weeks while equipment is dismantled and moved across, but the swimming pool and sports halls will stay open until the new centre opens."

The closure, and resulting loss of income, is due to be discussed at a meeting of Stafford Borough Council's leisure scrutiny committee tomorrow.

Councillor Ralph Cooke, Labour group deputy leader and leisure spokesman, said he would be asking for the closure period to be kept to a minimum.

He said: "If it is not kept to a minimum we will be in even more trouble financially than we already are.

"It is vital that we keep any movement and re-location time to a minimum so that there is a reasonably smooth transition period from the Riverside closing and the new centre opening, because it isn't as if we are flush with money."

The news follows the revelation that leisure centre charges in the borough are due to rise for the second time in six months. Fees are to rise by 3.5 per cent next April, under plans due to be unveiled tomorrow.

It follows an increase of around 15 per cent on leisure centre charges across the borough, introduced in October.

Fees at the Riverside Recreation Centre in Stafford, Alleynes Sports Centre and Westbridge Park, both in Stone, were put up to help tackle a funding crisis in the borough's leisure services department.

The problem was partly blamed on rocketing energy costs and the Riverside's enforced period of closure earlier this year due to flooding.

But leisure chiefs hope the new leisure centre, on the site of the town's former Territorial Army centre, will prompt a rise in membership, as well as being cheaper to run and more energy efficient.

Plans for the new development have previously come under fire, as it will have no diving pool, only one sports hall instead of the existing two and two squash courts instead of the current three at Riverside.