With indoor classes returning to Mansfield’s leisure centres this week Mansfield District Council has welcomed news that it has been granted a total of £246,000 in National Leisure Recovery Funding.

The council was told in January that it would get £230,000 from the Fund offered by the Department for Culture Media and Sport, via Sport England, for losses incurred by the leisure centres due to the impact of Covid-19.

As the pandemic continued to affect the leisure industry into 2021, another £16,000 was granted to the council in a second round of government funding.

The aim of the fund is to help councils off-set a proportion of losses and additional costs incurred to reopen services between December 2020 to April 2021. It will be forwarded to the council’s outsourced leisure management operator, Mansfield District Leisure Trust.

Coun Andy Burgin, portfolio holder for environment and leisure, welcomed the funding, saying: “Credit should go to the council’s Leisure Services team for successfully applying for this grant which will be a huge help in covering losses built up during the pandemic in our leisure centres.

“With the next stage of the reopening roadmap about to be set in motion, it will be good to see our leisure centres getting back to normal in offering a resumption of indoor exercise classes.

“All will be running with reduced numbers and Covid-secure measures in place.

“We are working hard as a council to encourage more people to be more physically active as part of the council’s wider vision to improve the wellbeing of local people.”

Geoff Waller, chair of Mansfield District Leisure Trust, added: “Wonderful news for our leisure facilities and a big ‘well done’ to Mansfield District Council in securing the recovery funding from central government. The trust looks forward to our swimming pools and leisure facilities getting back to normal in the very near future.”

To book a class, go to https://www.mansfieldleisure.com.