Your local community leisure centre & the energy crisis

Like many businesses and organisations in the UK following the Covid 19 pandemic and forced closure during lockdowns, the leisure sector is facing another crisis. 

You will have seen in the media the escalating costs of energy being faced by households and businesses.

Freedom Leisure, as operators of leisure facilities on behalf of our partners, are responsible for energy bills for over 100 leisure centres in the UK including the heating and maintaining of over 60 swimming pools.

Just as your bills are increasing at home, businesses like ours are facing crippling increases in energy costs due to the upward movement in wholesale energy costs.  However, unlike domestic supply we do not have the limited protection of an energy price cap.  For us these increases are running into the many millions of pounds.

Freedom Leisure, as a not-for-profit leisure trust, working on behalf of our local authority partners, cannot simply absorb these increases.  We are in open dialogue with our local authority partners and central government to mitigate the impact of these increased costs so we can continue to provide the level of service you expect and continue to support the health and well-being of the local communities we serve.

That said, we are having to make small changes that should not impact on the service we provide and these will also boost our Net Zero commitments. These changes include reducing the use of air conditioning in certain areas, switching off equipment that is not in use and reducing heating temperatures throughout buildings.

As such we need your help and support when visiting your local community leisure centre as we all have a role to play to reduce the use of energy and protect our planet. We would encourage customers to consider the following actions;

• Reducing the time you take to use the showers
• Switching off lights if you’re the last out of a room e.g. a studio
• Let our colleagues know when you’ve finished on a piece of equipment
• Turning off air conditioning in rooms not in use

We’re all in this together so with your help and support we’ll protect the long-term future of your local leisure centre and have a lasting impact on the health and wellbeing of your community.