Wokingham Borough Council has partnered with Places Leisure to run a range of exercise classes for older people.
The existing SHINE class will be transferred to Place Leisure, the city’s leisure provider, which has successfully managed six leisure centers in the borough since 2018.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, SHINE held 75 classes a week, but that is now less than half that number due to challenges around recruiting instructors and a decline in active membership.
The City Council therefore decided to work with Places Leisure to offer residents the opportunity to enjoy a greater variety of classes and get better value for money in the process.
SHINE classes are currently £5.60 per session or £46 for blocks of 10 people. Places Leisure offers both membership and pay-as-you-go options. This starts from £4.85 per class with discounted rates for residents aged 65 and over, and premium memberships with discounted rates (over 65) start from £40 per month.
As part of this program, there is no joining fee for those transitioning from the SHINE program. People aged 55 to 64 will pay for a non-preferential premium membership starting from £44 per month.
Membership not only provides senior-friendly classes, but also allows you to choose from over 220 classes per week across six centers.
SHINE members can currently take part in four swimming sessions a week, but new arrangements will allow them to take part in all lane swims, family swims, just swims, disability classes and aquafit classes at three leisure centers with swimming pools. It becomes like this. This allows access from 6am and 4pm, and from 6pm to 10:30pm, depending on time-scheduled sessions.
There will also be better gym offerings, with 108 hours of gym use per week per site across six sites, compared to the five sessions per week currently offered.
In addition to SHINE classes moving to Places Leisure, some classes will also be moved to fill the gap between older adult offerings and long-term wellness classes targeting physical activity and social isolation. transferred and delivered through active aging programs.
In some cases, a class may be canceled due to low attendance, but members will be directed to an alternative location where similar activities are available at the same venue or a nearby venue. If a new venue is established, the distance from the original venue to the new venue will be no more than 2.5 miles.
The partnership with Places Leisure will complement the services the council already offers, such as Just Swim for older people. These are executed in:
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Brumarshe Leisure Centre, Woodley, Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon to 1pm.
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Loddon Valley Leisure Centre, Lower Arley, Monday and Friday, 2pm to 3pm.
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Wokingham Leisure Centre, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2pm to 3pm.
Wokingham Leisure Center will also have free swimming sessions for residents aged 60 and over, held on Mondays from 8am to 9am and Thursdays from 2pm to 3pm.
Loddon Valley will host free swim sessions for over 60s on Wednesdays from 9am to 9.45am and Fridays from 2pm to 2.45pm.
Free swim sessions for over 60s will be held at Brumarche on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 1pm.
Current concession memberships allow you to add up to 4 juniors to your membership.
For an additional fee of £3 per junior per month you will have access to activities for children and juniors.
Cllr Ian Shenton, Executive Member for Environment, Sport and Leisure, said:
“Not only will you be paying less, you’ll also have more choice in how you exercise at one of the borough’s six leisure centres.
“Since 2019, the council has invested £52.9m in a range of facilities to help develop healthy communities and promote physical activity.
“We look forward to strengthening our relationship with Places Leisure as we continue to provide our residents with every opportunity to live happy and healthy lives.”
Existing SHINE members with remaining credits will be contacted to arrange a refund.
Once the class ends, any remaining credits will be refunded through our reservation system.
As well as operating the borough’s leisure centres, Places Leisure has also been running the BXGFit boxing gym at Peach Place in Wokingham since October.
We also run Forever Active, a program of low-impact sports and exercise classes to help seniors take care of their health and reduce social isolation. This includes tennis, badminton and aerobics and costs £3.90 each.
This session is for members and non-members.
Tony Penge, Contracts Manager at Places Leisure, said: “We are very pleased to be expanding our partnership with Wokingham Borough Council and adding these additional exercise classes to the current program we offer.
“We look forward to having current SHINE customers join us in our pledge to create active places and healthy people for thriving communities.”
Anyone with existing credit can contact the council’s sports and leisure team to arrange a refund. This can be done whether you plan to join as a Places Leisure member immediately or if you would like to wait until SHINE class operations cease in March.
Call us on (0118) 974 3728 or email [email protected] For more information.