Flintshire gym hoping to avoid further restrictions

Coronavirus cases are continuing to increase across Wales with new restrictions being introduced by First Minister Mark Drakeford.

The potential of a circuit-breaker lockdown has been discussed, but as of yet there is no plan to do so, much to the delight of Ricky Nicholson, Athlete Factory Fitness Flintshire owner and operations manager.

The end of 2020 and start of 2021 was tough for gyms in Wales with regularly changing restrictions causing problems, something that Ricky is hoping to avoid this January.

He said: "There is always serious worry for any business that is forced to close as in most occasions there is a loss of revenue and this impacts on the owners paying bills and staff with a reduction of their income.

"If the gym is forced to close the impact will be huge as I am still recovering from the previous lockdowns, again from reduced revenue and increased costs of maintaining the Covid regulations. Extra cleaning costs and equipment which in turn eats into profits."

Yet if tighter restrictions were brought in to place, Ricky believes that his gym has the facilities to abide by Coronavirus requirements, including a booking system that monitors numbers in the gym, social distanced machines and cleaning stations dotted around the gym.

He added: "As a business we have always met and exceeded the Covid requirements to keep our members as safe as possible.

"A booking system controls the amount of people in the gym at any one time, only bookings are allowed, so this eliminated people just walking into the gym unannounced. The facility is a one way system and all fitness machines are spaces 2m apart and if not are protected by physical barrier screens.

"Around the facility are cleaning stations with hand sanitiser and antibacterial sprays and it is encouraged that everyone cleans the equipment and their hands after each use. The facility is continuously cleaned and a deep cleaned at the end of each day."