Midlothian swimming teachers and personal trainers facing huge fees to use council centres
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Personal trainers and swimming instructors will have to pay hundreds of pounds a month to teach out of Midlothian Council sports centres from next month.
Growing demand for gym use has led to the local authority looking into charging people offering private training sessions £450 a month to use their facilities.
And swimming instructors who currently pay just a £5 adult entry to provide one on one lessons in the council's pools will now have to pay a £224 monthly charge.
The new fees were agreed at a meeting of Midlothian councillors this week after they were told membership subscriptions for the council's Tonezone programme was at its highest ever number with 5,349 members at the end of March this year.
Pay as you go gym lessons and attendance at swimming have also risen sharply in the last year with a rise of more than 11% in numbers for both leisure activities.
A report by officers said: "Since the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for personal trainers has surged significantly. In Midlothian, this growing demand has led to several personal training gyms opening in recent years, with GRN Box and Fitness Education Academy being notable examples.
"Competition has also intensified following the pandemic, with national chains like The Gym Group and David Lloyd expanding into Midlothian, both offering personal training services. Midlothian Council's Sport and Leisure Service does not currently offer personal training as a service."
It added: "It is proposed that external personal trainers pay a £450 monthly fee for access to our gym facilities to conduct personal training sessions with their clients.
"If personal trainers charge £55 per session (based on average of lowest and highest benchmarked). five sessions per week would equate to £275 per week, equating to £1100 per month gross income."
On plans to charge swimming instructors the report notes that the council provides free swimming lessons for all primary four pupils and group sessions but it adds: "There are currently seven external swimming instructors who deliver private lessons and also carry out an instructor role with sport and leisure.
"Instructors charge their clients between £10 to £20 per lesson. Currently, instructors are only required to pay for a standard Adult (£5.00) swim charge. Clients also pay for a standard swim on top of their lesson charge."
The proposals were approved by council without debate.
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