TAVISTOCK Community Sports Centre is encouraging people in the area to make 2013 their big year of change, as the arrival of a new management team aims to show more people how much fun exercise can be.

The newly appointed sports centre manager, Nick Lane, said school students took part in a variety of sports and exercise classes while in formal education, but this often seemed to stop completely when people left school.

Nick said: 'By coming along to the sports centre, we want to encourage more people to get active and reap the many health benefits this brings.

'We are not trying to get the entire town to join the gym, but we really want to help to get people moving.

'Inactivity is very bad for your health and we want to show people how to plan a health and exercise programme that suits them and their particular lifestyle.'

Nick has returned to Tavistock after completing his GCSEs and A Levels at Tavistock College and a degree in sports conditioning and coaching at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire.

Along with the new assistant manager James Carr, the fitness duo want to promote health and fitness among the whole of the Tavistock community and want to make the sports centre an accessible venue for health and fitness in the area.

Nick said: 'If we want the whole community to start moving and taking regular exercise, we need to ensure that we offer a wide range of classes that appeal to all ages, wallets and schedules.

'We will be recording how many exercise hours our visitors clock up every month and will produce a chart to show people how this is increasing over the year.

'If however, we start to see these hours tail off, we will get right behind the town and help to re-motivate them to keep on track.

'And to help kick-start this campaign we will give people one free session in the fitness suite if they bring this article along when they first visit Tavistock Community Sports Centre.'

The sports centre is part of Tavistock College which is no stranger to sporting success.

Many of its students have won county honours in a variety of sports, while last month windsurfer Saskia Sills, already a European and world youth champion, was named Young Sailor of the Year.