I’M a member of Bridport Leisure Centre (BLC). I play walking netball with the B&Y Bees and attend some of the aqua classes. As you may be aware, some activities have been cancelled because of the coronavius pandemic. In our netball group’s Whats App chat, the subject about freezing or cancelling membership came up. The reason being, our activity has been cancelled indefinitely. It made me think how many of the BLC’s members feel this way. Before anyone takes a step like that, can I ask you all to just think of the implications.

Firstly, when this crisis is over, we all want and expect things to go back to normal. Our membership goes towards paying for the upkeep of the centre and, very importantly, the salaries of the people who work there. If we start freezing or cancelling memberships, BLC may not be able to operate effectively. Staff may lose their jobs, which will be dreadful. They have families, mortgages and bills too. The worst case scenario is that BLC will close permanently. I can’t even begin to think what a loss to the community that would be.

The staff there are doing their level best to keep things going, cleaning equipment after every class and every use. They are doing this for OUR safety. We need to show them that we will support them and the centre through these dreadful times.

Please don’t freeze or cancel your memberships, even if you feel you can’t use the centre at the moment. Keep paying as usual. After all when we joined, we budgeted for our membership. Hopefully when this is all over, we can go back to our normal activities and routines with the staff we know and care about at the helm of the best leisure centre I have ever known. We are so privileged to have this leisure centre and I would be deeply saddened to see any of the staff lose their jobs because of this and they must be worried sick about that prospect and possibly the loss of the centre itself.

Stella Oliver