It is not an easy existence. “Take money wherever we can get money,” remains the order of the day. But this ethos means BeActive can do things other leisure centres can’t. There are NHS services based in the building offering help on fall prevention, pulmonary issues and rehab from strokes.
There are also school nurses and social workers. Filming for TV shows like Waterloo Road and Brassic brings in money. Filming for a Nike advert nearly brought a basketball megastar through the doors, Brooks says: “LeBron James was supposed to be in our gym.”
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This in turn can bring in people who might not usually engage with typical leisure activities, such as those living in poverty. “They’re not going to come in and use those facilities, necessarily, but they might pop in for a brew because we’re next to a park,” says Brooks.
BeActive has been supported with investment from Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of Big Issue. Funding has helped the group to secure the leasehold to the building, and their expertise has helped with work on the building’s roof and insulation.
As council budgets come under increasing strain, communities are often stepping in to make sure there is still access to healthy activities. “There used to be much more investment from local authorities into leisure. That’s kind of disappeared over the past five, 10 years,” says Kirsty Cumming, CEO of Community Leisure UK.
Because leisure centres are not statutory services, they can fall behind other things. “Leisure is never going to be top of that list, unfortunately. It’s always a case of whatever is left down at the bottom of the priority list,” says Cumming.
But this can have dire consequences for more deprived areas. “If a local authority is looking purely at the finances, the income, expenditure, some of the areas of deprivation might be less affluent, less profitable, potentially less able to run sustainable operation,” said Cumming. “But actually, the need might be the greatest for those people.”
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