A county councillor in Northumberland has criticised gym users he says prevent people from training by sitting on equipment while using their phones and gossiping. Coun Alan Smith, who represents the Cramlington Eastfield Ward, said he had grown frustrated with a number of gym goers at the town's Concordia Leisure Centre.
The Conservative councillor was speaking at Monday's meeting of the council's communities and place scrutiny committee. Members had heard that the number of gym memberships at the council's leisure facilities had gone up and satisfaction was high.
Councillor moves to Pure Gym
However, Coun Smith said he had moved to the new Pure Gym in the town. Memberships in the town have fallen by 4% in Cramlington in the past year, compared to an 8% rise across the county as a whole.
Coun Smith said: "I cancelled my membership at Concordia because of not being able to train. The people you're bringing in now are not training - they're sitting there on their phones and gossiping."
"Get off the machines if you're not using it. I object to paying full whack to use the facilities when they're getting a free ride - they don't train."
Frustration over equipment use
"I have trained all my life, because I have pushed myself. They go in there, they're flicking their hair back, they're rolling their eyes and they're going through the motions."
"You're not getting any benefit from it. Yes you're bringing up membership, but it is getting to the point where you cannot train because they're hogging the machines and messing around."
"To me, you have positioned yourself at a point where you're a rehab gym, but you're not catering to people who want to train seriously. I think that's why you've lost a lot of membership to Pure Gym."
Leisure centre response
Area manager for Places Leisure Simon Churchman pledged to take Coun Smith's points to the manager of the site. He added: "We want to make people feel welcome but we're aware of people using the facilities without paying."
"We don't want turnstiles in every centre but we are looking at some form of access control. That will definitely have some impact."
"What should be happening is when the fitness instructor is in the facility, they should be picking this up. It's a real problem across the industry."
