Leisure centres in Ashfield are showing signs of returning to their pre-pandemic levels of popularity having hit more than 1million attendances for this financial year (2022-23) so far.

The centres, run by Everyone Active in partnership with Ashfield District Council, are on course to beat the 1.2million attendance of 2018-19, which was the final financial year not to be affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Lammas Leisure Centre, in Sutton-in-Ashfield, leads the way with more than 500,000 attendances but Hucknall Leisure Centre is not far behind having racked up in excess of 400,000.

The combination of the old Festival Hall Leisure Centre and the brand new, state-of-the-art Kirkby Leisure Centre is closing in on 150,000. Kirkby opened in August 2022 and has itself contributed more than 100,000 attendances during its first five months open.

Kirkby's 100,000th attendee was Jean Patterson and the millionth user across the Ashfield contract was Angela Foster, with each receiving a £100 Everyone Active voucher as a reward.

Everyone Active began a new, 10-year contract with Ashfield District Council in April 2021 and in addition to the opening of Kirkby, there have been substantial facility upgrades at Hucknall and Lammas in recent times.

Lorenzo Clark, Everyone Active's contract manager, said: "These numbers are hugely positive and show that centres are rebounding well following the pandemic, while Kirkby has made a brilliant start.

"Centres are providing facilities and activities which local communities are getting the most out of, while colleagues are working hard to meet customers' needs.

"Our partnership with Ashfield District Council continues to go from strength to strength and that is borne out in these figures, with more exciting developments to come in 2023."

Councillor Rachel Madden, Executive Lead Member for Leisure, Health and Wellbeing at Ashfield District Council, said: "We are investing over £22m to improve leisure facilities for residents across the District. These figures go a long way to show how the improvements are proving a big hit with our leisure centre users. Kirkby Leisure Centre has been open six months so to have reached these milestones already is a fantastic achievement and here's to many more!"

For more information about Hucknall Leisure Centre, please click here.