Print and broadcast media were the main sources of information about sports centres and sport more widely in the 20th century, but with the advent of widespread access to the internet and associated social media platforms in the 21st century, the media landscape has changed for leisure centres in the same way as it has […]
An important leisure centre development since 2000 has been the facility provision for the growing popularity of exercise classes. We have come a long way from those rather traditional keep fit classes in Harlow Sports Centre’s sports hall. Now, new or improved centres often have two or three dedicated ‘studio’ spaces, capable of accommodating income […]
Based on a submission from Professor Peter Thomas MBE, former Senior Education Officer and Head of Arts, Sport & Recreation, Buckinghamshire County Council Buckinghamshire, including Milton Keynes, also sought to make the best use of school facilities. As a consequence of the many changes in the structure of Local Government in 1974, a significant and […]
New schools underpin early Nottinghamshire Joint Provision Nationally there were numerous school building programmes in the 1960s to cope with new settlements or expanded towns. From 1960 to 1969, Nottinghamshire County Council built 32 new secondary schools and 73 new primary schools [ref. Hansard March 1970]. Nottinghamshire’s first purpose-built comprehensive school, Ashfield School, had arrived […]
Origins In 1967 Cheshire recorded only 25 indoor ‘sports premises’ in the County in excess of 3,999 ft.[i]. By 1979, a mere 12 years later, some 29 additional new indoor sports centres had been provided, an impressive achievement. But what is all the more remarkable is that 22 of these were jointly provided by the […]
The Oval Bebington, Cheshire, (sometimes referred to as the Bebington Oval and Port Sunlight) is a municipal athletics stadium with a sports hall in Bebington, Merseyside. It opened in 1973 and its first centre manager was Denis Woodman, who became Director of the Countryside & Recreation Division, Cheshire CC, and Chairman of the Association of […]
The late Alec Collins was an early Leisure Director for Macclesfield Borough Council from Local Government Re-organisation in 1974. He brought his administrative and management experience as a Town Council Clerk to recreation management. His wartime service was in the RAF, where he combined his navigation skills with piano playing, performing with many of the […]
My initial view as an assessor at the beginning of the award, was the difficulty of comparing the management of centres that were very different e.g. a large town centre facility with a small rural. Indeed, at one stage there was a discussion about the desirability of having different categories. The award then moved on […]
I started my first job as a sports director in 1964 when I was appointed by Leeds City Council as Principal of the Leeds Athletic Institute. The council embarked on an innovative scheme and set up an old Victorian “E shaped” school as a sports activity centre. It’s design provided three large halls and twelve […]
The John Hirn Construction low cost sports centre model was selected by Salisbury District Council in 1992 to meet the needs of the Districts Western Parishes. The late Michael Norrish, Managing Director of John Hirn had been developing an all timber sports centre model very successfully in Southern England. Tisbury and District Sports Centre had […]
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