Petition details
Open ladies shower access via Women only gym at Mile End gym
This is very bad management. Mile End Gym management have decided to close the ladies access to shower and toilets via the women only gym because they believe ‘some women sneak into the gym’. This is the comment/feed given to me by duty managers.
This is a very petty argument or excuses. Sure let there must be
some other way of managing these issues. Having restricted access
has and is causing me going into the gym. It means I can’t
access the toilets and shower facilities as and when I need to via
the gym. Some women have health issues such as incontinence,
mobility problems and others. Going all the way across the hall and
around the mix changing rooms is a lot of disruption and
inconvenience for a lot of women.
This Petition ran from 26/11/2021 to 21/02/2022 and has now finished.
103 people signed this Petition.
Council response
Thank you for your petition.
The health and wellbeing of our residents is one of our key priorities, as well as being inclusive and ensuring all residents have access to health facilities.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought its own challenges to how gym and healthcare facilities could be used. GLL were already experiencing customers at Mile End Park Leisure Centre booking the swimming pool and using the programmable gym as a short cut to the female only changing rooms. Some customers would then use both facilities but only pay the lower pricing for swimming. On average the staff at Mile End would challenge 5-10 customers per day for this practice. This equates to a potential loss of income of £294 per week, which was predicted to be £15k per year.
To address this issue, GLL closed the door from the programmable / women only gym to the female only changing rooms.
Since GLL implemented this change, usage in this area has increased by 5%, which is estimated to be due to the bookings more accurately reflecting usage of the area. This mitigation measure is considered to have a limited impact on customers. The centre is inclusive fitness initiative accredited with multiple changing facilities and Disability Discrimination Act compliant changing rooms and toilets in the vicinity, which are readily accessible to customers.
The Programmable gym / Female Gym Changing room is located
approximately 100 metres away from the Women Only Gym. Travel time
between the changing room and Gym is approximately 58 seconds. This
is a minor detour and GLL report no significant impact on the
customer base.
Alternative, there are available changing facilities in the
Swimming Pool mixed changing room and Female Swimming Pool changing
rooms for customers to used. Women Only provision hours of
operation at Mile End have increased from 57 hours per week to 100
hours per week to help meet increased demand. There are around
25,550 bookings for the Programable / Women Only Gym for Mile End
per annum.
GLL has received one complaint to date regarding this matter via GLL’s and the Council’s complaints processes but will continue to review its current measure if demand increases.
Judith St John
Director of Commissioning and Culture
Sports, Leisure & Culture