Providing fitness and well-being services for any community must be at the beating heart of most councils these days. Gone are the dreary old ‘community baths’ or uninspiring, dated ‘seventy style’ leisure centres bereft of any kind of decent resource or investment. Being healthy and active seems to be the key message and providing the environment to enable this is crucial. It’s a fitness landscape that’s shifting in the right direction.
Sandwell’s newest sport, swimming and fitness facility located in the heart of Wednesbury boasts a plethora of facilities including two deck-level pools, a seventy-five station fitness gym, dedicated spin studio, two dance studios hosting a wide range of fitness classes, and three court sports halls. The centre is ideally placed between Dudley and Walsall near the M5 and M6. Sandwell Leisure Trust (SLT) has worked in partnership with Sandwell Council to fast-track the building of this new centre providing the people of Wednesbury and the wider community with an exciting new swimming, sport and leisure centre. SLT is a registered charity, not for profit organisation and social enterprise that carefully balances its commercial aspirations with its social ethos. It manages Sandwell’s leisure centres and a sports development and physical activity team on behalf of Sandwell Council with an overall aim of creating an active Sandwell. At SLT they take great pride in delivering activities to the wider community and work in partnership to help increase and promote physical activity in Sandwell.
Mark Wildman, Marketing Manager, SLT commented, “The Trusts wider aims are to increase participation in sport and physical activity of Sandwell residents and to develop opportunities to engage and encourage inactive people and the wider community to use and enjoy sport and leisure in Sandwell”.
With quality top of the SLT agenda they would need the very best possible flooring for their sports hall which could deliver performance, safety and comfort. It would be an ideal opportunity for international interiors and flooring specialist Gerflor to supply their Olympic-standard Taraflex® Sport M flooring. The project would consume a healthy 340m2 of this high-performing product.
Taraflex® from Gerflor has been used in many international and local sporting events and is available in 17 colours and two wood-effect designs. The Sport M Evolution product offers a P1 category shock absorbency 25% to 35% and meets the EN 14904 Standard for indoor sports surfaces. Taraflex® is also recognised for providing durability, safety and comfort without impairing performance. The range also offers greater than 45% force reduction, making it unrivalled in the marketplace in terms of offering comfort for users. Taraflex® also meets the EN Standard of 22196 for anti- bacterial activity (E. coli - S. aureus - MRSA) (3) returning >99% levels of growth inhibition. The product is also treated with Protecsol®, which renders polish redundant and is triple action meaning no polish is ever required, it contributes to easy maintenance and is anti-friction burn and slide/grip. Taraflex® has a double density foam backing and as another bonus, it’s environmentally friendly. Gerflor offers a number of installation solutions for Taraflex® including the Eco-Fit System which allows fast, free floating installation.
Mark Wildman finally commented, “‘SLT chose Gerflor’s Taraflex because it’s a market-leading product that provides a flexible, easy maintenance flooring which is suitable for a wide variety of sports and community activities”.