FREE swimming schemes: important information
Over 60’s Free Swimming
Due to the Government’s recent decision to withdraw the funding to offer free swimming across the Southampton City Council swimming pools, the free swimming scheme for customers aged 60 years and over will unfortunately cease from 31 July 2010.
As of the 1st August 2010 swimming for customers aged 60 years and over will be a chargeable activity at the published list prices.
Southampton City Council would like to thank you for your support during the free swimming scheme and look forward to your continued support and custom in the future.
16 and Under Free Swimming
Despite the Governments recent decision to withdraw funding to offer a free swimming to customers aged 16 and under Southampton City Council have taken the decision to continue the free swimming scheme until 31 August 2010. The decision to continue the scheme has been assisted and supported by other partners in the City.
As of the 1st September 2010 swimming for customers aged 16 and under will be a chargeable activity at the published list prices.
Free swimming will continue from the 1st September 2010 for children aged 3 years and under.
Southampton City Council would like to thank you for your support during the free swimming scheme and look forward to your continued support over the summer holiday’s and in the future.
Early morning spinning classes now running at The Quays
The Quays Swimming & Diving Complex launched two early morning spinning classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-7.45am. The first class started on Tuesday July 6. For more information, please contact reception on 023 8072 0900.
New toilet and changing facility for disabled people at The Quays
Works on a new toilet and changing facility for disabled people have just been completed at The Quays. The leisure centre has decided to create a designated changing facility under the Changing Places initiative.
Changing Places toilets are different to standard disabled toilets with extra features and more space to meet users' needs. For more information about this initiative, please visit The Quays page>
The Outdoor Sports Centre gets new athletics track!
Large-scale work has now begun to resurface and rejuvenate the popular athletics track at The Outdoor Sports Centre in Southampton.
Since hosting the Millennium Youth Games back in 2000, thousands of athletes of all standards have pounded the track week in, week out leaving the circuit in a less than ideal state of repair. However, with work already underway and scheduled to be completed at the beginning of September, Southampton residents can once again look forward to having a top class running facility within the city limits.
Paul Fuge, Facility Manager at The Outdoor Sports Centre said “we are delighted that the work has finally got the go ahead. The brand new track will allow the centre to continue the fine tradition of being an excellent community venue providing training for both casual as well as high class competitors”.
The facility, in the Bassett area of the city, has a great history of hosting athletic events in the local region and features the facilities for taking part in all major athletic disciplines.
The process is expected to last around 6 weeks and involves both deep cleaning the existing surface and repair work to all damaged or worn areas before a completely new surface is put in place over the top.
For information on track opening times, once the work is complete, please call The Outdoor Sports Centre on 023 8079 0693 or visit us at www.southampton.gov.uk/sportscentre.
Chamberlayne Holiday Club is back
Chamberlayne Holiday Club returns from Monday July 26 to Friday September 3 2010. The Club offers full care for children aged from 5-13 years and is open from 8.30am to 5.30pm. Activities include bouncy castle, football, arts and crafts, cooking and multi sports!
The club also accepts Busy Bee childcare vouchers. The holiday club is Ofsted registered and has achieved the 4Children 'Aiming Higher' quality award. For more information and booking, call Chamberlayne Leisure Centre 023 8043 7668.
The World Cup continues this summer
The Kick Start project offers young people aged 11-16 years old FREE coaching football sessions well as football courses throughout 5 weeks during the summer holidays! All sessions are open to boys and girls.
Sessions have been set up within Woolston, Sholing, Merry Oak and Bitterne to help reduce and tackle anti-social behaviour, criminal damage and vandalism.
For further information on the Kick Start project and how to attend the sessions, please contact Ian Butcher, Community Football Development Officer, on 07985 288842 or email ibutcher@itchen.ac.uk.
Visit our Kick Start page> for information on times and dates concerning the Summer Programme.
Get on Trim Trail
As the sun continues to shine, Southampton City Council officially launched on Monday June 14 its new outdoor fitness trail to encourage the people of Southampton to get fit and stay healthy.
The ten station multi-use fitness trail offers all visitors to The Outdoor Sports Centre free access to one of the most popular forms of fitness in Southampton. At the launch of the Trim Trail, Keith Walkman and Jono Hill from British Military Fitness (BMF) were on hand offering free coaching sessions.The route has been designed with help from one of Britain’s leading outdoor fitness groups, BMF, to help create a challenging course for people of all abilities. The course starts with simple warm up stations such as the balance beam and arm stretch and then moves on to rotate between upper body and lower body exercise stations. The trail ends where you began so if you have any breath left then you’re more than welcome give it another go!
The course is completely free to use and a recommended route map is provided as well as a diagram demonstrating how to use each station correctly. With summer upon us the Trim Trail will offer residents of Southampton a fun way to get fit and enjoy the sunshine.
BMF will be running sessions at The Outdoor Sports Centre every Monday and Wednesday from June 21. For further information, please contact reception on 023 8079 0693 or email sports.centre@southampton.gov.uk.
Visit our Trim trail page> to see pictures of the 10 stations.
The Paddling Pool is open to the public for summer
The Paddling Pool at Southampton Common is now open for the summer! Under normal circumstances the pool will be open at the following times:
24 May to 23 July:
Monday - Sunday 10am-6pm23 July to 5 September:
Monday - Sunday 10am-7pm
Paddling Pool opening may be subject to change due to adverse weather conditions. For more details about the paddling pool, please contact the Outdoor Sports Centre on 023 8079 0693.
Riverside tennis court now open to the public
Dust off your racket and play tennis at Riverside court. Come along and play for FREE on a brand new court that has just been re-lined and re-surfaced. For more information, please contact 023 8079 0693.
Amazing Adventure Summer Camps
You can now enrol your children at our Adventure Summer Camps available at Woodmill Outdoor Activities Centre and Southampton Water Activity Centre (SWAC).
Your children will be enjoying all our thrilling activities from climbing and archery to canoeing and raft building! For those who prefer a wet and wild week what about sailing around the Solent? Learn to sail with our qualified instructors in a variety of boats in the safe waters around the Centre.
This is a great opportunity to meet and make friends whilst enjoying a week worth of healthy and challenging activities. Our Adventure Summer Camps are open to 8-17 year olds and are available every week in the summer holidays.
For more information about prices, activities and times, please contact Woodmill Outdoor Activities Centre on 023 8091 5746 and Southampton Water Activity Centre (SWAC) on 023 8091 5753 or visit our Adventure Camps page>
Join ‘Last Man Stands’ T20 cricket league
Last Man Stands is a global 8-a-side amateur cricket competition welcoming beginners to high grade cricketers, students and dads looking to return to the sport.
It was first established in London in 2005. It has since grown to accommodate over 14,000 players and 600 teams in England, South Africa, Dubai, New Zealand and Australia.
It already has more than 6000 players in the UK with leagues in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Bournemouth and now Southampton - at The Outdoor Sports Centre!
This exciting Twenty20 style global competition ranks local players against those from as far away as South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
Adding to the international prestige, local players in Southampton will be in prime position to qualify for the England Champions League in September 2010 where the final will be played at the home of cricket Lords. All teams are also eligible for the $10,000 LMS World Championship on the Gold Coast, Australia from November 18 to 24 2010 (A week before the 1st Ashes).
For more info please email: ross@lastmanstands.com or call 0771 745 3272.
Sport and Recreation Partnerships Project update
Southampton City Council has identified a major leisure partner as the preferred bidder to manage and operate a 15 year lease of some of its leisure venues in a move to get more residents in the city fitter and healthier.
The council wants to get more people using its leisure venues and facilities throughout the city. It hopes that this partnership will boost the amount of people using its leisure services by up to 15 per cent in just five years.
The partnership will also save the council and taxpayer more than £400,000 a year.
Active Nation, in partnership with DC Leisure Ltd, has been chosen as the preferred bidder to manage and operate the council’s leisure venues – which include Bitterne Leisure Centre, Chamberlayne Leisure Centre, the Quays ‘Eddie Read’ Swimming and Diving Complex, Woodmill Activities Centre, Southampton Water Activities Centre, the Outdoor Sports Centre, Paddling Pool and Southampton Alpine Centre.
Councillor John Hannides, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Heritage, said: “This is fantastic news for the city. This partnership means the council will be able to draw upon the extensive experience of our preferred partner which will enable the council to save money and bring more investment into the city’s leisure venues.
“The council has a good track record of successful partnerships. The council has previously entered into partnerships to operate the Guildhall and Alpine Centre and as a consequence residents have been pleased with the much improved services these venues now offer.
“All the Leisure venues will still be owned by the council and the preferred bidder will need to focus on providing what our residents want. I know there has been some public concern over price increases however I can reassure residents that this partnership is about improving access to our venues and that any increase in prices would need to be approved by the council. One of the key aims of this partnership is to get more people using our services and widen access especially elderly residents and those people on low incomes.’
“The leisure centres currently require a subsidy of £1.4 million a year and this partnership will reduce those costs while improving services to all our customers. Building on the Sport and Recreation service’s previous successes is critical and the preferred bidder will have to demonstrate annual customer satisfaction improvements.”
Other neighbouring authorities to have entered into similar leisure partnerships have included Eastleigh, Portsmouth, Winchester, Fareham and East Hampshire.
The Southampton partnership will commence in September this year.
More information about the partnership can be found by downloading the Customer Update (February 2010) from the bottom of this page, or by emailing the project team at sport.partnerships@southampton.gov.uk
Sport and Recreation Partnerships Project update - Southampton Municipal Golf CourseSouthampton City Council has identified Mytime Active as the preferred partner to manage and operate Southampton Municipal Golf Course as part of a partnership which aims to boost customer numbers and improve customer satisfaction.Mytime Active is a registered charity that currently successfully manages and operates nine golf courses across the South of England including two courses for Brighton and Hove Borough Council.
Mytime Active will run the golf course on the council’s behalf for 12 years, using all its expertise to improve the standard of the popular course and drive up user numbers.
The partnership is a great value for money initiative saving the council £350,000 over the duration of the 12 years, in addition to investment being made in the course.
The partnership will result in a number of benefits, including:
- A number of tees on the golf course being re-constructed
- A higher quality of maintenance on the main greens
- New machinery and technology to be used to ensure enhanced quality of fairways, greens and tees
- A target of increasing participation by 3% each year for the first five years of the partnership
- Improving the course’s national standing and customer satisfaction scores.
These are key bench marks in judging leisure venues across the country.
Mytime Active will sign the final contract in the next three months manage and will then operate the Golf Course from September this year.
If you want to know more, please download the Customer Update document from the bottom of this page or email sport.partnerships@southampton.gov.uk.
Sport and Recreation Partnerships Project update - St Marys Leisure Centre
Southampton City Council has identified Southampton Solent University as the preferred bidder to manage and operate St Marys Leisure Centre for a minimum period of 2 years from Saturday 31 July 2010.The Council’s aspiration has always been to offer quality and sustainable sport and recreation provision for the City and in undertaking this approach it will secure an ongoing provision at St Marys Leisure Centre. The venue will still be publicly accessible.
As part of the mobilisation of the partnership with SSU, St Marys Leisure Centre will be closed from Monday 2 August to Wednesday 4 August 2010 to allow for the new installation of an IT system and associated infrastructure. The venue will re open for normal operation from Thursday 5 August 2010.
Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
If you have any questions or wish to know more, please contact the Project Team at sport.partnerships@southampton.gov.uk.
Chamberlayne Leisure Centre first venue in Southampton to get PAT Mark Quality Award
The PAT Mark Quality Award is a stamp of approval for disabled people’s services, recognising good quality provision for children and young people with disabilities. It is awarded by Aiming High and parents of children and young people with disabilities who have been trained as PAT Mark assessors.
They assess services, organisations and projects against set conditions. The conditions are as follows: environment, safety, communication, staff, policies and information and involvement.
This award shows the commitment of Chamberlayne Leisure Centre to provide a good quality service, which successfully meets the needs of children and young people with disabilities.
Chamberlayne Leisure Centre’s New Quest highs!
Southampton City Council’s Chamberlayne Leisure Centre has been successful in maintaining its excellence status in Quest, the National Benchmarking Scheme for Leisure Facilities. Chamberlayne attained 91% which is a 5% improvement on its last assessment.
Jon Randall, Facility Manager, stated ‘this is a fantastic achievement for the whole team at Chamberlayne Leisure Centre and recognition for the team’s hard work, focus and dedication to achieving something very special. To break the 90% barrier is a real achievement and I am proud of the whole team.’
Over 950 leisure centres across the UK taking part in Quest and Chamberlayne Leisure Centre is now ranked 4th in the UK.
Jayne Ludden Sport and Recreation Manager said ‘Southampton City Council Leisure venues have a fantastic track record in performing exceptional well in Quest and Chamberlayne’s score of 91% is a testament to the drive and commitment by all staff to constantly improve our services’.
Chamberlayne Leisure Centre was opened in April 2000 partly funded by the National Lottery with help from the Sports Council.
It is a purpose built dryside venue (no swimming facilities) which hosts a number of facilities. The venue is able to host various sports including football, trampolining, badminton, table tennis and aerobics classes. Chamberlayne also hosts an IFI (Inclusive Fitness Initiative) accredited fitness suite.
Southampton City Council
