Record visits to leisure centres

About 1.14 million visits were made to the seven Oxford City Council facilities, new figures show – with disabled user numbers increasing by a third.

Disability campaigners have praised the development, which comes after a push to make the facilities more accessible.

The centres are run in partnership with the notfor-profit organisation Fusion.

The increase comes despite an average rise of six per cent in charges for activities such as swimming and fitness classes.

Fusion marketing manager Steve Lee said: “We have had a good partnership with Oxford City Council and it has been a big success story.

“The council has put a large amount of money into the leisure centres and at the same time there has been much more customer focus and staff training so the service levels have really improved.

“Part of our remit is to make our facilities accessible to all and we make great efforts to do that.”

Gwynneth Pedler, of disability group Oxfordshire Unlimited, said the group had carried out some of its access audits on the leisure centres. She added: “They invited us to work with them and we are delighted that more people are using the leisure centres now.”

The figure of 1.14 million for the financial year 2011-12 exceeded a target of 1.04 million. The centres attracted 15,000 disabled visitors, up from about 11,000 last year.

Visits by people aged over 60 were also up, by 17 per cent.

The previous record was last year’s 990,000 visits.

Several of the centres have been refurbished, including the Barton Leisure Centre, which has been given a new gym and reception area, and Ferry Leisure Centre in Summertown where the gym has doubled in size.

Membership of the centres now numbers 8,500.

City council head of leisure and parks Ian Brooke said: “The results are a fantastic achievement for the staff at the centres and the officers who work behind the scenes at the council.

“We have been improving the facilities over the last few years and that has been reflected in the figures.”