Mansfield leisure centre redundancies to impact playgroup, lifeguards, trampolining and cafe

Following news that 40 jobs losses were on the cards, Mansfield District Leisure Trust confirmed lifeguard roles would be hardest hit.

At the Water Meadows Swimming and Fitness Centre, Titchfield Park, Bath Street, the trust said ‘6.7 lifeguard roles,’ the equivalent of seven full-time jobs (most lifeguards are part-time), would go.

The Water Meadows cafe will close whilst a playgroup and trampolining will be halted at the Oak Tree Leisure Centre, on Jubilee Way South.

40 jobs set to go as Mansfield leisure trust announces redundancies

Trust Contract Manager Andrew Smith said: “The impact of the redundancies will affect a number of areas. In the short term, this will mean we are not able to offer certain services, such as the playgroup and trampolining at Oak Tree and Water Meadows cafe.

"The greatest impact will be a reduction in lifeguard roles at Water Meadows. Due to current guidance on indoor leisure facilities affecting capacity limits in the pool, we will sadly require fewer staff.

“We continually review what we’re able to offer based on current restrictions and will update customers and staff once we have any news on reopening dates for those parts of our centres currently closed, or any update on increased capacity limits in areas such as the Water Meadows pool.

Decisions were ‘being led ‘by Government guidelines on leisure facilities. he said.

Mr Smith added: "We will review what we’re able to offer and how many people we need. We hope to look again at recruitment at some point in 2021 but making predictions about what jobs we may be able to bring back is impossible now.

“It’s important to be realistic about the situation we’re facing. Customer visits since we reopened in July have fallen by over 170,000, a 75% decline compared to the same period in 2019. We are not planning to reopen the café at Water Meadows, and will look at alternative catering options.”

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A spokesperson for the GMB union, which represents some leisure centre staff, said: “For the GMB, our members jobs always come first.

"Talks are ongoing, we’ll be doing all we can to fight to protect jobs and support our members at Mansfield District Leisure through this difficult time and beyond."