STAFF at Camelford Leisure Centre have been celebrating the fifth anniversary of the centre being taken over as a Community Interest Company, writes David Sillifant.

The milestone was celebrated at the recent annual general meeting, held at the leisure centre on November 22.

The evening started with Liam Smith receiving a honoury life membership of the leisure centre after becoming a world champion at the WCJJO (World Council of Ju-Jitsu) World Championships in Australia.

Liam has worked at the leisure centre for the past couple of years and was recognised for his achievements.

This was followed by the official opening of the newly refurbished fitness suite in the sports hall, which was opened by Suez’s processing contract manager, Robert Sanders.

The leisure centre was given a grant for £30,000 from the Suez Communities Trust to install new machines and weights, with work finishing in the school summer holidays.

Chairman Jonathan Holt and the leisure centre co-manager, Peter Hamilton-Toohey, gave their reports, before all of the directors were re-elected en bloc.

The previous year’s AGM wasn’t particularly positive as they made a loss of approximately £27,000.

However, there has been a remarkable turnaround over the last 12 months as they made a surplus of £39,000.

Mr Holt said: “We’ve managed to turn it around. During the previous year there were certain issues and if I’m being honest we weren’t sure if it was going to survive. However, we’ve increased our income and decreased our costs and we’ve started to turn it around.

“I’d like to thank all of the volunteers and directors for their continued hard work and urge everyone in the local area to come and get involved.”

Mr Holt then went on to outline their plans for the coming year.

He said: “We’re looking to introduce further activities, including trampolining and gymnastics. We’re hoping that the new fitness suite will be successful and it’ll help increase our membership. We’also working on more social prescribing by doctors because down in St Austell they pay a worker to organise exercise for suitable patients.

“Sixty per cent of people who’ve lost weight through it have managed to maintain their weight loss and it’s also seen a decrease in drug usage. These people are now less reliant on drugs because they’re so much healthier.”

Mr Hamilton-Toohey was pleased with the year, which has seen some significant changes.

He said: “At the last AGM we discussed the importance of our swim school and how we have been developing it. Last year we increased the numbers from 90 to 116 and at the start of our current term have over 130 children enrolled. An extra 50 bodies enrolled in swim school provides the leisure centre with an additional £11,000+ over the course of a year. We have achieved this through successful marketing via social media and leafleting through our primary schools.

“We have focused as much as we can on consistency with our staffing which is hugely important, and consistency across the board with the grading of students’ abilities.

“Staff training has been important and emphasising the need for teachers to be able to offer feedback to parents when requested has also ensured the retention of pupils. We have three student volunteers who are currently in the water acting as swimming lesson assistants, we cannot thank them enough for their help and loyalty and plan on rewarding them in 2018 by becoming lifeguard and swim teacher qualified and ultimately a fantastic employment opportunity.

“Many of our staff are now familiar faces to you all. The staff are hugely important to us and all buy into the Camelford Leisure Centre ethos and culture.”

Among the new activities at the leisure centre in recent months include aquajets, a pilates class and a Junior SwimFit for those who don’t want to partake in competitive swimming or are returning from injury.

All three have proved to be a great success, as has the fitness suite, which has seen an incredible upturn in memberships.

Camelford Leisure Centre has also finally put an end to its plant room problems. Throughout last year there were significant issues with fault pumps and so on.

However, earlier this year it was awarded £10,000 from the Big Lottery Fund, which has been used to install new sewage pumps, service the two pool pumps, handling system and biomass boiler as well as purchasing a new PAC dosing pump.

Mr Hamilton-Toohey said: “It’s been a really good year, the development of the fitness suite has been really exciting and we’ve continued to improve. There are lots of positive things going on within the leisure centre so the future is looking bright.”

While big changes have been made, Mr Hamilton-Toohey knows that they must keep pushing on.

“We know there are still areas we are aware we need to improve on. We have long had IT issues, which we are tackling with new PCs that have been installed and next we’re having fibre optic broadband installed. This accompanied with a new network switch, should hopefully allow all things to run a little smoother.

“We are also aware of the issue of replacing the grills around poolside, plus access to the building and the repairs needed to all three power assisted doors. The quotes in excess of £3,000 to repair and replace parts for the doors and a further £3,500 for the grills surrounding the pool have left us stumbling. However if we continue increasing our membership base and identifying new funding pots, we can hopefully look forward to resolving these issues going through 2018.”