Accessibility

Being honest, the ‘ground-hog day’ effect of lockdown has been getting to us a bit this week… We miss normal, we miss the buzz of a busy Leisure Centre and we miss being able to get on with all the things we have planned! We know this is temporary, and is definitely what’s needed to keep everyone safe at the moment, but it does drag, right?!

So this week, we were so pleased, to see our builders break ground on our new link corridor! This signifies progress, and means that when we are finally allowed to re-open, we should have safe, level access to the entire building!

One of the aims of the refurbishment was to make the building accessible to everyone in our community, and this link corridor is one of the last things we need to do, to make the internal layout of the work!

Massive ‘Thank you!’ to Penistone Ward Alliance, and Penistone Area Team for donating the required funding to build the corridor, and to our fantastic builders JSD construction for their hard work!

We were very pleased to hear on Friday, that our funding application to Penistone Ward Alliance was successful! We now have the money we need to complete the exterior corridor which we need to build between the Cardio room and the main gym room. This wooden structure will mean that there is safe and secure, level access to the Gym or far end of the hall (if the near end is in use).

It will be a huge improvement, as at the moment we have been having to ask disabled centre users to enter via a different door to everyone else causing an unintentional discrimination. Also centre users have had to walk around the car park in the dark to access the toilets in the main part of the centre, which is unpleasant in bad weather conditions!

The corridor will also safeguard the gym from thefts, as all people entering the gym will have to access via the front doors, so will be on our CCTV.

Here’s a rough mock up of what the finished corridor will look like!

We owe a huge thank you to BMBC who the funding comes from, and to the Ward Alliance Panel who meet to decide who gets it, and of course to the staff at Penistone Area Team who have been very supportive of what we’re trying to achieve here.

Work Has Begun On Our New Link Corridor!

Some Great News!