Coronavirus: Wigan Council closes all leisure centres

In the coming days and weeks, Inspiring healthy lifestyles will help the council’s efforts in protecting frontline and essential services and providing support for the most vulnerable.

Leader of the council, Councilor David Molyneux, said: “With great reluctance we’ve made the decision to suspend leisure centres services across the borough from today. In the fight against Covid-19 it is absolutely vital that we use our buildings and staff to support schools and the children of key workers to ensure our frontline workers are well equipped.

“It’s really important that residents stay active and with plenty of greenspaces on our doorstep we’ll be encouraging residents to get outdoors to keep fit and healthy, while of course following the social distancing advice from the NHS.”

Pete Burt, Managing Director of Inspiring healthy lifestyles said: “We understand that many residents will be very disappointed, however, it’s important we join the effort to make sure we’re supporting frontline services and we know our customers will understand that.

“The health and wellbeing of everyone in the borough is really important to us and so we’re going to make it easier for everyone to access information and fitness over the coming months by creating more videos, advice and information on all our social media platforms so that people can stay fit and healthy in their own homes.

“We will review the position on an ongoing basis and additional information for all our members and regular users can be found on our website’.

In line with national guidance, libraries across the borough also closed earlier this week but may reopen in the coming weeks to serve alternative purposes determined by local demand.

Events scheduled in the next few weeks, including the unveiling of the Mining Heritage statue at Wigan Town Hall, have also been postponed.

Further events scheduled in the next few months will be reviewed at a later date pending updated guidance from central government.

Members of the Leisure Centres can visit http://www.inspiringhealthylifestyles.org/wigan/COVID-19/information-regarding-covid-19-2.htm for more information.

More information for residents on looking after themselves and others during the Covid-19 outbreak can be found at www.wigan.gov.uk/bekind

There is also a full list of suspended council services on the website