Delight as Rasen’s new £6.3m leisure centre is set to open

The Gainsborough Road leisure centre will open its doors for the very first time at 12pm on Saturday, July 25, on the same day leisure centres around the country reopen following the Covid-19 lockdown.

Building work at the centre has continued throughout the pandemic to avoid any major delays in opening.

West Lindsey District Council leader Coun Giles McNeill said he was ‘delighted’ the £6.3 million Market Rasen Leisure Centre could now open.

Coun McNeill said: “We have been working very closely with Everyone Active in recent months.

“Obviously we are delighted that our two leisure centres in the district [Market Rasen and Gainsborough] can now open. I am enormously pleased that despite Covid-19 we have been able to deliver the new leisure centre in Market Rasen.”

In line with government guidelines, the leisure centre will only be offering the fitness suites and gyms and a phased group exercise programme at this time.

And initial opening hours will be 12pm to 6pm.

The centre will be run by Everyone Active and will include a state-of-the-art gym, with more than 40 pieces of Technogym cardio, strength and pure strength equipment.

Its studio space will have 15 Kaiser group cycling bikes.

WLDC first announced its plans for a leisure centre in Market Rasen back in June 2018.

The council consulted on the plans and thousands of residents signed a petition calling for the leisure centre to include a swimming pool.

But the district council said a pool would not be ‘financially viable’ at the moment.

As a compromise WLDC asked its planners drawing up the site layout to leave a space for a swimming pool, should there ever be a justifiable ‘business case’ in the future.