Hailsham Leisure Centre underwent a £1million transformation of its four-court sports hall to feature an eight-lane ten-pin bowling alley, Sussex’s first purpose-built children’s gym by ZigZag, a soft play area, party room and crèche, firmly positioning it as one of the county’s primary ‘family leisure destinations’.

Richard Whitling, manager at the centre, run by Freedomleisure said: “This has been a big investment, but with Alliance Leisure’s help we have developed one of the best leisure attractions in the area.  This can only be good news for everyone in the town and local businesses will also benefit from the additional visitors.”

Hailsham Leisure Centre’s old sports hall would, at best, cater for 10 people playing 5 a side or eight people playing badminton. The new facilities can accommodate more than 125 people ranging from babies to senior citizens, and has taken its annual income from £68,000 to a projected £400,000 from the same space.
“We realised that the development needed to represent a departure from the traditional public sector portfolio in order to significantly increase participation,” said Karen Burrell from Freedomleisure.  “The new facility demonstrates our commitment to promoting increased participation in diverse forms of exercise.”
However, even at Hailsham Leisure Centre it took the loss of income from the local community college, which had received funding to build its own sports hall, to convince Freedomleisure to reconfigure its space.

“All secondary schools are being rebuilt over the next 15 years as part of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme,” said Sarah Watts, Managing Director of Alliance Leisure.  “Many of these will open their sports facilities to the local community, making the old leisure stock of sports halls increasingly redundant, so now really is the time to look at what your site has to offer to future generations.”

Brockwell Lido pool in South London reopened following a major refurbishment by Alliance Leisure, in time to celebrate 70 years of open-air swimming.

The refurbished lido, complete with new reception area and changing facilities, was part of a £3million redevelopment undertaken by Alliance Leisure in association with leisure trust fusion, which also saw the opening of health and fitness facilities to make the site more commercially sustainable.

The Lido, situated in Brockwell Park, has survived virtually unaltered since its opening in 1937 and the building still retains many of its distinguishing features, including a square clock, art deco lettering on the café and the original streamlined pavilion buildings.

The Grade II listed building, Alliance Leisure’s first heritage site, was part funded by Alliance Leisure and English Heritage and was covered by 106 planning conditions to ensure the integrity of the old building was kept.  This included the rerouting of major water mains, specially made bricks, finding an exact match for the windows and shaping the banks and keeping the same foliage around the site.

Jeremy Lake, Fusion’s manager at the Lido commented: ”It’s tremendous to be open again for the 70th celebration and feedback from visitors in our first week of opening has been brilliant.”

Alliance Leisure’s £3 million redevelopment of Pendle Leisure Trust’s, Pendle Wavelengths in East Lancashire officially opened at the end of June 2007, bringing true 5* spa facilities to the masses.

Pendle Leisure Trust is, not surprisingly, proud to be the first public sector site to launch such an innovative approach to health and well-being. Across the UK most spas have a price tag to match their luxury surroundings with the average price of a spa visit costing £50 a pop.  But in stark contrast, at Inside Spa a two-hour spa session costs only £10.  Added to that, Pendle Leisure Trust’s fitness members receive a 20% discounted entry to ensure maximum value for money and loyalty for existing customers.

 “Pendle Wavelengths offers a value-for-money, family experience that is usually only available in exclusive, high-expense private sector complexes," said Phil Storey CEO of Pendle Leisure Trust. "Inside Spa’s prices will be much more competitive than standard private spas, meaning the facilities will be accessible to everyone.”

The redevelopment of the existing 1980’s Pendle Wavelengths leisure pool was carried out with strategic partner Alliance Spa, Alliance Leisure’s spa partnership arm, which project managed and provided £2 million funding towards the unique venture.

The Trust also entered into a five-year partnership with Alliance Spa to support the development with spa specific consultancy, including negotiations with strategic partners to provide the best brand proposition and support structure from product houses, structuring and development of the treatment and package menu, design of a bespoke sales process for all spa treatments and services, pre-sale set up including sales and marketing and the recruitment and training of spa staff.

Alliance Spa’s Berni Hawkins, the name behind a number of highly successful private spa ventures, including Champneys and Oyster Spas believes we can expect the spa industry to boom in the next 10 years.  “Spa is in its infancy, just as the fitness market was 10 years ago,” she said.  “This has lead many local authorities to see spas as something that’s glamorous and expensive, that’s not for their client base, but this doesn’t have to be the case - offering high quality relaxation and treatment facilities is the natural next step.”

Sarah Watts, Managing Director of Alliance Leisure said:  “We hope to take this spa model on the same journey we have with fitness over the last ten years.  Many local authority fitness facilities now rival their private counterparts and with Government targets focussing more and more on lifestyle and wellness, the joint fitness and spa model begins to make more and more sense for the public sector.”

Alliance Leisure is redeveloping three of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council’s Leisure Centres.

The £1.2million contract follows a highly successful development undertaken by Alliance Leisure to the fitness facilities at the council’s Halesowen site in 2005.  The leisure centre also partnered with Alliance Leisure to help reach its 500 membership target and just 12 months on members hit the 700 mark and outgrew the fitness suite.

Steve Gay, Area Sport and Recreation Manager for Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council said:  “We knew there was potential to grow the membership and originally undertook a £220,000 project funded by Alliance Leisure to replace our ageing fitness facility and win over both member and council officer confidence.  The redevelopment was a huge success.  We’re now running at full capacity and are about to enter a second phase to develop the scheme further.”

The original project at Halesowen included refurbishing an underused room to create a 40-station Technogym Wellness fitness suite and increase revenue - the new gym will house more than 60 stations.   During the first phase of redevelopment the original gym was kept open and, as a reward for existing members and an incentive to new members, membership prices were slashed to half price during the building works.  This meant that the site opened in July 2005 with 112 members.

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council has now received a £1.2m cash boost to further improve facilities in the region and increase visitor numbers.  This funding will be rolled out across Halesowen Leisure Centre, Crystal Leisure Centre and Dudley Leisure Centre, with work set to start on Dudley Leisure Centre this month.  The five-year partnership with Alliance Leisure will also be extended across the other centres to maximise membership opportunities.

When Tone Leisure was awarded a 10-year contract to manage South Hams District Council’s four leisure centres it was important for them to make an instant impact.   The sites had seen no investment or changes for four years, so both the staff and local community needed a clear demonstration of the leisure Trust’s commitment to the area.

During the bidding process Alliance Leisure developed remodelling plans and access to £700,000 funding for investment projects at two of the sites - the Quayside Leisure Centre and South Dartmoor Leisure Centre.

“Whilst bidding for the South Hams contract we looked at what improvements we could make to the sites,” said Juliette Dickinson, Managing Director of Tone Leisure Trust.  “South Dartmoor had a very small, poor ventilated gym and a large multi use area that was used as a creche and party room, right in the hub of the centre, so we could see there was scope straight away.  There was no studio either, so the class programme was very limited.”

The time scale was extremely tight, with work due to begin immediately the contract was signed.  Juliette Dickinson said:  “Working with Alliance has been a great advantage for us. We didn’t physically have the resources to manage the investments going in, so whilst we were involved in initial meetings with designers and project managers, we could hand the day-to-day running of the redevelopment’s to Alliance.”

The development at Quayside Leisure Centre in the small Devonshire town of Kingsbridge included a 35-station gym with specially zoned areas and equipment for induction and cardiac rehabilitation.   A cardio entertainment theatre was installed along with air conditioning and the hotchpotch of equipment replaced with Life Fitness remanufactured stations from Physique.  The current gym was extended into the bar area to make room for the zones, and a studio, treatment room and fitness testing room created.

Work on South Dartmoor Leisure Centre in the larger town of Ivybridge started the same month.  A much larger 38-station gym was created in a hexagonal shaped room, right at the heart of the centre, with plenty of height and natural light, while the existing gym was converted into an air conditioned dance studio with a sprung wooden floor and mirrors and a multi-purpose room for the crèche, parties and meetings.

Juliette Dickinson continued: “This is one of the quickest projects I have ever witnessed.  Alliance Leisure pulled out all the stops to get the projects delivered on time.  I don’t think the leisure staff, councillors and board at South Hams believed we could pull this off and the investments have given both Tone Leisure and Alliance Leisure credibility in the eyes of the District Council.

“Tone Leisure is now using these new facilities to bring some exciting activity programmes to the local communities in South Hams.”

Alliance Leisure scored an all round winner with Community Leisure Services (CLS) for its development project at Yarborough Leisure Centre.

In a client satisfaction survey independently carried out by Leisure-Net, the facility development company scored a perfect ten out of ten for communication, flexibility and the overall relationship – to name a few!

The £1million development, which was part-funded and delivered by Alliance Leisure, consisted of a brand new state-of-the-art 1,300 sq ft 65-station fitness suite- the centre piece to the site’s affordable membership programme, which was created by building a mezzanine floor over the existing learner pool.

New dry changing rooms were built to support the fitness suite and a family orientated ‘changing village’ created to offer a more user-friendly environment. The wet changing facilities now lead on to an all new sauna and steam suite with relaxation area.

An existing bar was converted into a dance studio, the reception and foyer area remodelled to include a new café/bar and public rest area, and an outdoor all weather pitch installed.

Clare Kennedy, CEO of CLS said:  “Our aim was to revolutionise the services on offer at Yarborough.  Generally we wanted to bring the centre up to standards fit for the 21st century and from a business point of view we saw this as a way to increase throughput and income.

“We approached Alliance to assist with funding the project, because we were attracted to the way the company’s funding works - we could pay for the development over a period of time, and also for their understanding of the development process in the public sector.  Their experience was invaluable during negotiations with the Council.”

Alliance Leisure’s building contractor and the quantity surveyor overseeing the project also scored an overall ten out of ten, taking the final client satisfaction score to an impressive 97%.

Mike Hill, Managing Director of Leisure Net said:  “CLS was without doubt the most satisfied Alliance Leisure client I have spoken to.  In fact, it would have been difficult to find examples how the experience could have been bettered!”

Armthorpe and Rossington Sports Centres unveiled a £1 million new look to the local community following Doncaster Council’s redevelopment programme with Alliance Leisure.
Work at Armthorpe Sports Centre included the conversion of two under used squash courts into a 60-station fitness suite with mezzanine floor, refurbishment of the changing rooms to cater for the fitness suite, and conversion of the wet changing rooms into a village-style changing area for ease of use by all visitors, making it easier for people with disabilities.

The fitness suite at Rossington Sports Centre has been doubled in size by extending into under-used areas including offices, and now offers members a state-of-the-art 32-station gym. 

Alliance Leisure, which funded and project managed the work, was also awarded a five-year partnership with both Rossington and Armthorpe to boost their membership and retention figures through sales training and systems, brand development and marketing, as well as regular on-site support.

The work was part of a three-centre upgrade by Doncaster Council to offer a better service to its local community.  The final phase of redevelopment is Thorne Sports Centre.

Councillor Eva Hughes, Cabinet Member for Public Health, said: "The refurbishment of our sports centres is part of our strategy to encourage exercise across Doncaster by ensuring that facilities are appealing, good value for money and easily accessible to residents of all ages and abilities."