UPTAKE OF COUNCIL owned sports facilities in Moray has seen an increase with the new ‘Fit Life’ membership scheme in particular showing strong growth.

Councillors will today consider a report being put to the policy and resources committee on an interim update of sport and leisure provision in the region.

In the report Sports Development Officer Kim Paterson highlights a 12% increase in the use of council swimming pools and fitness rooms, rising from 222,959 users in 2014 to 250,382 over the last year.

While community centres have shown a slight decrease in use of less than 5%, the report notes that the 2015 figures excluded June and July admissions at Forres House community centre so as not to skewer the figures as that facility had been closed for these two months in 2014.

A success being reported is in sales of the flagship Fit Life membership scheme, which has seen strong growth that “significantly exceeded the target figures” with a total of 1177 family memberships taken out to the end of August this year and another 748 individual memberships.

An estimate of the additional income generated from the Fit Life membership scheme is estimated at £70,000 for the full year.

The report concludes that public reaction to the membership scheme has been “generally positive” – although it also notes that there have been some issues over the system being “administratively burdensome” and considered expensive for some sections of the community with a promise that these will be further investigated.