 Wiltshire Council has confirmed that improvements to the fitness suite and group exercise studios at Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre will get underway later this month.

This is part of the council’s commitment to make improvements to some of its fitness facilities in the county.

The plans in Salisbury are primarily focussed on the fitness suite and will include:  

A complete replacement of the gym fitness equipment
replacement flooring
redecoration of the gym area
the introduction of a new virtual studio platform in both the main studio and cycle studio

The key information that customers need to know is that:

work in the main studio to provide additional cabling and networking for the virtual studio will take place from Tuesday 25 June for four days, with works in the cycle studio from Monday 1 July for four days
further work in both studios to install the hardware required for virtual classes will take place in July, with the exact dates to be confirmed
the gym will be closed from Monday 12 August with a temporary gym offering in the sports hall from Tuesday 13 August for the duration of the fitness suite works
disruption will be minimised as much as possible to all centre users but some fitness classes may be affected and the gym will be temporarily relocated for a period of approximately three weeks.

The council has also confirmed that it will soon reopen the Five Rivers health suite. The council decided to temporarily close its health suite facilities which are located in seven of its leisure centres. This was primarily due to the high costs to run them, at a time when energy costs were soaring, and the impact on the council’s carbon footprint.

Following a period of due diligence, the council has confirmed it will reopen the health suite facility at Five Rivers Health on a trial basis to assess its effectiveness and usage. It’s important the facilities are viable, and the council is in the process of working out the best way to offer these services to customers at good value, but in a way that’s sustainable for it to run. The health suite will reopen in September and more details, including the exact date, opening hours and how people can access it will be confirmed soon.

Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling, Cabinet Member for Leisure, said: “I’m pleased to confirm more improvement works to one of our leisure centres.

“As a leisure service we want to help the people of Wiltshire to increase activity levels and improve health. To do that we need to provide quality services in fit-for-purpose accessible facilities for all.

“We will also be opening up the health suite again on a trial basis. It’s important the health suite facilities are viable at Five Rivers and we’re in the process of working out the best way to offer these services to our customers at good value, but in a way that’s sustainable for us to run. We’ll have more information on this soon.  

“We look forward to delivering these projects and providing a much-improved fitness offer for all members.”