All of us have had to cope with disruption to our daily lives regarding home, work, school and our leisure time. Having to spend so much extra time at home isn’t easy, especially perhaps if you have young children, live alone or are elderly. We all want to get back to ‘normal’ life as soon as we can, catch up with friends or neighbours, get out the house and have a change of scene.
Like us, you’ll be hoping we can reopen our brilliant leisure centres, venues, activities and attractions as soon it’s safe to do so.
We know that working-out at home can never replace our great facilities and the buzz of being with your regular instructors and friends at our classes and activities. Hopefully we’ll start to see some changes to restrictions and be able to open again soon within any new guidelines.
Similarly, keep a lookout for updates on shows and events at Burnley Mechanics theatre. Like our leisure facilities, the Mechanics has been temporarily closed over the past few months. Shows were suspended in the spring but we will be updating our programme.
During the lockdown restrictions, we’ve posted a wide range of practical, motivational, entertaining and fun content online, through our website and social media such as Facebook. This content has been really popular, have been watched and shared widely, and we’ve received loads of great feedback from you too, which is great. Here are some examples of particularly popular posts and videos.
In the early period of the lockdown, we started posting a weekly live workout video for members presented by instructors from their homes. But the videos then become daily and have been watched and shared by huge numbers of people.
Particularly popular has been Bex’s LBT video and the Cha-Cha Slide Plank Challenge, put together by the Burnley Leisure team.
So far, the Cha-Cha challenge has received the most engagement. You can watch a great compilation video of members doing the challenge here: https://www.facebook.com/177000092360022/videos/577496062863597/
Still on the video theme, one of our younger viewers, Lily, has put together her own workout video for us to share on social media for followers. Again, it’s great to see people getting into the spirit of things and keeping us active and engaged.
Watch Lily’s video here: https://www.facebook.com/177000092360022/videos/220686499039512/
In the first period of the lockdown, Burnley Leisure Facebook posts gained nearly 3,000 likes, over 1,200 comments and over 1,100 shares. So, we’re all chuffed that our content has been so popular and useful. Thanks for making it such a success,
We’ve also been working hard out in the community to help those in particular need, which, in turn, has been making the headlines in local newspapers such as the Burnley Express and Lancashire Telegraph.
You may not realise just how much good work we do across the community, including support for children, young people and old folk, for example.
Many Burnley Leisure staff who run venues such as Prairie Sports Village, St Peter’s Leisure Centre, Padiham Leisure Centre, Towneley Golf Club, Burnley Mechanics theatre, and The Boathouse in Thompson Park have been furloughed in recent times. However, they have volunteered to help with a programme of online content, outreach work and advice for the community.
They have supplied resources including producing survival guides, free skipping ropes for home use, and over 90 free online workouts for all fitness groups and a timetable of outdoor workouts under health restrictions.
Furthermore, Burnley Leisure staff have made themselves available with vehicles to support Burnley Council and local voluntary groups. We have also worked with schools to provide a free holiday club to children of key workers and NHS staff during the holidays.
Did you know our leisure organisation is a registered charity? This means any profits we make are invested back into our facilities and community services – for your benefit. So, every paying customer or member plays a really valuable part in supporting our great range of quality facilities which, in turn, benefits the whole community.
We are also democratically accountability to the local community, through links to the borough council. We also our work with other ‘partner’ organisations such as NHS doctors’ surgeries, local schools and voluntary community groups. These relationships and responsibilities make us unique.
This is why we launched such an important range of community outreach work during the coronavirus restrictions.
Looking ahead, we will keep you posted with reopening developments as they happen.
Hopefully the lockdown restrictions will start to be eased, step by step. Our social media and website will keep you updated with all the latest information on our venues, classes and community activities, timetables, membership arrangements, bookings etc.
We can’t wait to welcome you back to our gyms, pools, spas and other great amenities. It’ll be great to see you again, see our brilliant facilities in full use again and experiencing that great atmosphere and friendship that we all love.
Look out for more updates on our Facebook page.
