PEOPLE are being urged to return to Parklands Leisure Centre in Okehampton where the pool and gym are open with precautions in place and some exercise classes are now running.

Assistant general manager Amy Parker said the leisure centre serving Okehampton was still ‘a bit slow’ in terms of customer numbers although becoming busier as more of the facilities were opened up.

The centre run by Fusion on behalf of West Devon Borough Council reopened in the middle of August, after being closed since March due to the pandemic.

Amy said staff were ‘excited’ to be able to welcome their customers back.

‘We want to get the word out that we are open and we are Covid-secure and are here to welcome people back,’ she said. ‘We are excited to welcome people back and so pleased to be back here. It is good for the customers and their mental health and well-being to use the centre.

She added: ‘The gym is open, we just can’t have as many people at one time as we could before.

‘We have the pool open and we are running exercise classes. Our sports hall is also open, depending on the activity, with the restrictions meaning we can’t have sports with more than six people. We can’t have football, but we do have the Okehampton Flyers trampoline club run by OCRA and the swimming club now. We have slightly reduced opening hours ­— 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday instead of 7am to 9pm.’

She added: ‘It is a bit slow, but things are picking up. All our sessions have to be pre-booked at the moment and we are finding that sessions are beginning to fill up, but there are still spaces available.’

She stressed that sessions needed to be pre-booked which could be done on the Fusion app.

The Covid restrictions mean swmming sesssions last an hour, must be pre-booked and the changing rooms are closed for 30 minutes in-between so staff can give them a thorough clean. Lane swimming is taking place, with the pool divided into just two lanes to keep swimmers socially distanced from each other. She said the swimming pool was busiest first thing in the morning and after school.

She added that they hoped to restart the exercise referral scheme, where people can be referred by their GP for sessions in the gym, as soon as possible. These see GPs refer patients recovering from cancer, cardiovascular conditions and other serious health conditions for sessions in the gym with a trained therapist. They have been on hold since the Covid lockdown started in March.