Both the East Bergholt Sports Centre and Hadleigh High Leisure Centre are situated on school sites and used during the day for school activities. However outside of school times they are available for community use. Each site runs various fitness classes, as well as activities and holiday courses for children. East Bergholt also has an outdoor swimming pool that is open during the summer months.

Kerry Burn, our community reporter met Chris Marsh at East Bergholt to find out more. Chris has been managing both sites for just over two years.

East Bergholt Sports Centre is a separate building in the grounds of East Bergholt High School. Chris tells me that it was opened in 1997, “Lottery funding was secured in order to build more facilities for use by the community!” Chris says.

Facilities at East Bergholt are:

• Sports Hall
• Fitness Studio
• Gymnasium
• Outdoor Heated Swimming Pool (Summer only)
• Multipurpose Hard Court Area
• Outdoor Grass Pitches

A number of courses and activities are held including Junior Gymnastics, Junior Trampolining, Junior Football, Junior Karate, 50+ Fitness classes, circuits, pilates, diet and fitness club and exercise classes for people with disabilities

The fitness studio at East Bergholt underwent improvements in 2005 that included the addition of 6 new machines for use by disabled and non-disabled users.

“We had to make other changes to the building to ensure we were accessible to all, but it meant that we gained accreditation from the English Federation of Disability Sport” Chris added.

The addition of these machines has also meant that the facility is also used for GP referrals. The fitness studio is available to children from the age of 14, using it for FREE during their lunchtimes and for just £1 in the evenings. Everyone who joins the fitness studio has to have an induction course that introduces them to each machine and how it works, after which they are then free to use the facilities when not in use by the school.

During my visit to EB Chris also introduced me to Jackie who is the Inclusive Fitness Activator and she told me that the centre is the one of the sites in the district that has been chosen for Inclusive Fitness.

“We try to ensure that all of our facilities are compatible for people with disabilities and we are hoping to get funding to make improvements to ensure that the Hadleigh site also meets the same standards” Chris tells me.

The swimming pool at EB is open from May until the end of August and is a very popular facility, being an outdoor heated pool.

Hadleigh High Leisure Centre opened in around 1996 and was awarded grants in order to open for community use.

Facilities at Hadleigh are:

• Sports Hall
• Fitness Studio
• Gymnasium
• Multipurpose floodlit hard court area
• Outdoor grass pitches

Hadleigh High LC Fitness Studio is open every weekday morning from 8am to 10am and opens again at 5pm when the whole centre is open to the public. There are daytime exercise classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings 10 – 11am.

Thanks to a grant from Babergh District Council, air conditioning will be installed during the half term week and there will be a quick makeover of the area before the reopening on 20 February. Chris says this is long overdue because although the fitness studio is well used in the winter, in summer people did not like being in there because it got unpleasantly hot.

Like East Bergholt Centre, Hadleigh LC provides many exercise classes and even more clubs and courses for children, recent developments have been a new Fun Tennis session for younger children, a basketball session for teenagers and a social Badminton session on Friday nights where people can just turn up to play or can get some advice or coaching to learn or improve their play.

Hadleigh has a thriving GP referral scheme thanks to the expertise of Zoe Connolly who has taken extra qualifications to manage GP referral and to introduce disabled people into improving their health and fitness. Chris says “The next target for improvement at Hadleigh is access around the centre, and we hope to emulate the work done at East Bergholt to ensure that disabled people can exercise alongside their friends.”

Each site employs around 15 part-time staff, which includes duty staff, leisure assistants and Instructors.

Both sites are helped with there funding by grants from both Babergh District Council and Suffolk County Council.

“It is very difficult for us to secure funding but we have been considering doing some of own fundraising for specific projects.” Chris says.

During the alterations to the Fitness Studio at East Bergholt, some of the staff also did some voluntary decorating and helped to adapt other areas of the building to provide disabled access.

It really is a social, community facility and I was lucky to be able to meet some of the people who come to the 50+ class that is run every Monday from 11.30am.

I had a quick chat with some of them before they started their class and they were all very friendly and even allowed me to take some photos. Chris told me that they are a very sociable group who arrange to go out at Christmas for a meal.

I would like to thank everyone at East Bergholt Sports Centre for showing me the facilities and making me feel welcome. It is a great facility and for anyone living in the area looking for somewhere to exercise then they should look no further.

For more information:

East Bergholt Sports Centre Tel: 01206 299340

Website: www.eastbergholtsportscentre.co.uk

Hadleigh Leisure Centre Tel:01473 824441

Website: www.hadleighhighleisurecentre.co.uk