High Life Highland today released further details on what customers can expect when returning to leisure activities over the coming weeks.
In order to ensure that the Highland Charity is adhering to Scottish Government guidelines, a decision has been taken that customers will be required to pre book before visiting a leisure centre to participate in any activity, including gym and swim sessions that before lockdown would have been classed as ‘drop-in’ activities.
Steve Walsh Chief Executive of High Life Highland said, “We are really looking forward to welcoming our customers back to our sites from Monday next week. To make sure we comply with the guidelines all activities must be pre-booked, drop-in access is no longer available.”
“Our customers will be receiving information on how to make bookings later today and will be advised of the time the new system will go live.”
The Charity Chief Executive welcomed last week’s announcement by the First Minister that leisure sites could re-open two weeks earlier than the Scottish Government’s routemap had previously indicated.
“There has been a lot of excitement from customers since last week’s announcement. However, we are good-to-go and understand that we are leading the way in Scotland; with many other areas sticking with the originally planned mid-September re-opening.”
“We are expecting demand to be very high so I would therefore ask for everyone’s patience as the booking system across HLH facilities is introduced and bedded in.”
Access to leisure facilities attached to the school estate is still under discussion and a positive outcome is expected to be announced imminently.
Steve Walsh, High Life Highland Chief Executive responded, “I fully support the priorities for colleagues in The Highland Council that have been around the safe access for pupils as they return to full-time education.
“High Life Highland has therefore been working in partnership with The Highland Council to identify ways in which our staff and customers can access community facilities located in the school estate, in compliance with Scottish Government guidelines.”
“I am pleased that discussions are progressing very positively and I am hopeful that we will be able to contact customers and members that have their local leisure centre or pool located in a school later in the week to advise them of the dates they can resume their indoor activities.”
“In the meantime, those customers can still access all other High Life Highland leisure and swimming facilities which will re-open on 31st August, where highlife cardholders and pay-as-you-go customers can book their activities.”