People using a Nottinghamshire leisure centre will not be able to use some of its changing rooms for much of the week as part of an agreement with the school now controlling it. A joint agreement was previously in place for the Kimberley Leisure Centre between Broxtowe Borough Council and the East Midlands Education Trust, the latter of which runs the Kimberley School.
That agreement came to an end in April and a new agreement was signed. As part of that agreement, people wishing to access the dry side changing rooms at the leisure centre, primarily those using its gym, will not be able to do so for much of this week, starting from this month.
Confirming the arrangements, a Broxtowe Borough Council spokesperson said: "From 1 December 2022 the dry side changing will be available for customers (weekday) from opening until 8.30am and again from 4.00pm until close. Accessible changing space remains available all day and some alternative changing is available in the swimming pool changing space during the weekdays.
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"This has been communicated to customers. At weekends, the changing provision remains unchanged with both indoor and swimming changing available all day, each day."
But some users are unhappy with the agreement, one of them being 69-year-old Ray Isherwood. He said: "We've always been able to access these changing rooms and I was only recently told by someone on reception that this would be changing. I'm quite angry about it because using the gym during the day is ideal for me but if during the week I can't get changed and have a shower after, it's going to affect it for me.
"The school seems to want to use an increasingly larger portion of the leisure centre and they've always managed to make do with what they've got at the moment. Kimberley is growing and so we need to keep facilities like the leisure centre for people to use."
But Broxtowe Borough Council said that these changes were already agreed as part of negotiations earlier this year. A spokesperson for the authority addded: "The purpose of the change is part of the overall agreement which has resulted in significant improvements to the learning environment for students at the school whilst still enabling a leisure provision to be offered at the site by Liberty Leisure Ltd for seven days a week.
"Liberty Leisure Ltd and Kimberley School are continuing to work successfully together to ensure that opportunities to take part in sports and fitness activities continue at the school site without compromising the quality of education or experience for students at the school."
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