Popular UK leisure centres suddenly shut as staff admit ‘we didn’t know anything about it’
TWO popular public leisure centres in the UK have suddenly closed down, causing fear among customers and staff.
The City of Lincolnshire Council confirmed that their Yarborough and Birchwood leisure centres would close effective immediately on Wednesday night.
Charity operator, Active Nation, sent the announcement to members saying they were no longer able to operate the venues 'for the foreseeable future'.
The Yarborough Leisure Centre provided a gym, swimming pool, running track and studios for classes, while the Birchwood facility included a gym, spin studio and 3G pitches.
Active Nation's statement referenced "the ongoing utility crisis and challenges it has created" as the reason for the sudden closures.
It claims to have tried to find another company to take over the services whilst working with the council, but to no success.
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A Yarborough Leisure Centre instructor, Carla, told the BBC: "We didn't know anything about it, the place was buzzing and it was busy but then we got the news", after just having taught a class in the morning.
A number of staff expressed their concerns employment, and cited the tough trading conditions they worked through to try keep the venues running.
Customers of the leisure centres, Mauva Jessel, Nina Hill and Elise Rothwell, have also shared with the BBC they are worried about the fees already paid to be made members.
Ms Hill said: "We paid £150 for annual memberships in February, but there's no receipt or anything like that to prove it - I expect we've lost all that money."
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Ms Jessel added: "Why weren't the public warned about this? It's disgusting".
Authorities have advised pre-paying members to contact their bank or card provider, or the administrator once appointed.
Popular running event, the Lincoln 10K, which was set to take place from the Yarborough leisure centre on Sunday, is understood to still be going ahead as planned.
The sudden closures of these leisure centres in Lincolnshire come after another in Scotland was also shut down.
A number of retail stores and markets are also facing mass closures around the UK.
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The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."