Ho hum... I'm not stroppy or anything, you understand... But tomorrow morning i have a meeting with Edinburgh Leisure's health and fitness manager, and also the manager of Portobello Swim Centre. It's a meeting where i think they're supposed to explain to me what the hell they're playing at with the classes at the centre. I mean, they revamped the whole place back in November, closing it down for a whole month (which when you rely on the creche is a VERY long time), and telling us it would be fabulous once reopened, with great classes and improved facilities.
And I was happy, yes indeed. I had a perfect timetable of fitness which had the great advantage of involving time out from small people, and I had four joyful months of bending, stretching and dancing.
And then they decided to cancel my classes. In fact, not just my classes, but all the late morning classes. So actually, half of the classes they had put on when the creche was available. And decided to replace them with over-50 classes. I have nothing against over-50 classes, you understand, but why exactly do they need to be scheduled for when the creche is available? I know there are people over 50 who look after children but I never see them using the creche. So really, their classes could be at any time...whereas those of us with young children can after all only use the centre during the three hours when the creche is available.
So i wrote a letter of complaint. To the head of Edinburgh Leisure. And now i have to give up my time, and hobble over there tomorrow with my sprained ankle, just to hear some whitewash about why parents of small children can't be allowed an opportunity to be as fit as anyone else in Portobello...even though we spend more money at the centre than anyone else, since we also have to pay for a creche on top of the classes.
Why is it that some places meant to serve a community are allowed to be so prejudiced in which parts of the community they are prepared to serve?
Grrrr.
Just a bad-tempered rant about classes at Porty swim centre
Yay!
Actually it went really well. They said all the right things about clearly needing to consult us (local people) more, said they'll look to reinstate my class and give it longer next time before they cancel, will inform us when the6y are cancelling, will make the times more apppropriate, etc etc. Then they asked if I was there representing anyone else, so i explained that whilst other people certainly agreed with me and were very upset by it all, I was there primarily about my own concerns. And then they asked if i'd be prepared to meet with the manager every two months or so to consult with them and tell them what the customers want, and what they're getting right and what they're getting wrong - basically to be a customer liaison person, which came as something as a shock! So i said yes. I think we need to be listened to and so I had to put my money where my mouth is, really. Apparently they're starting a whole new system of consultation with lovcal community groups and so on too shortly - staff are already doing the training for it.
So...pretty productive! Thanks for asking.
So...pretty productive! Thanks for asking.
