The Leisure Review: news in brief

Edition number 91; dateline 2 May 2016

Parkwood Leisure, which operates 87 leisure facilities on behalf of 26 local authorities, has undertaken to take on more than 100 apprentices over the next five years.

The Association of Play Industries (API) has appointed Vicki Braithwaite, director of Pennine Playgrounds, to its executive committee.

Louise Coysh has been appointed the University of Southampton's first associate director (arts and culture), a role devised to “strengthen the University's strategic engagement and development of the arts on campus, in the city and region”.

The CTC, once known as the Cyclists’ Touring Club, is now to be known as Cycling UK.

The Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK), has launched an open water lifeguard qualification as part of its campaign to increase the number of safe open water swimming sites in the UK.

The STA has launched a swimming teaching code of practice today designed to “support and clarify every aspect of what their 9,000-plus members need to know when teaching swimming”. It can be downloaded via www.sta.co.uk/news

The STA has also launched a new teaching programme for schools designed “to help providers meet national curriculum standards while ensuring learners are water confident”.

Places for People Leisure, which describes itself as a “not-for-dividend leisure management operator”, has signed a deal with software specialist ReferAll to deliver the programming across its group. Sarah Leonie, Places for People’s Sarah Leonie head of fitness explained: “ReferAll know the language to use when speaking to GPs and practice managers. This has not only helped us with direct contact but has also opened doors.”

Halton Borough Council and Norton Priory Museum and Gardens have appointed Mather & Co to lead a project to transform the museum. The scheme will mark the museum’s 900th anniversary, creating a new museum at the historical site. The project will be supported by main funder the Heritage Lottery Fund, alongside The Wellcome Trust, Garfield Weston, Foyle Foundation, WREN, Granada Foundation, Arts Council England, Wolfson Foundation and the Pilgrim Trust.

Tim Dent, long-term Friend of the Leisure Review, has launched a new venture: re:creation consulting. The new consultancy is based in Scotland and will have a UK reach, providing support and advice to organisations working across the sport and physical activity sector and those involved with planning major events. You can find him at www.recreationconsulting.co.uk

As TLR readers will know [see TLR news in brief passim] Newcastle City Council has granted a lease for the city pool and Turkish baths to Fusion Lifestyle. The deal means that plans for a £5 million renovation of the Grade II-listed building can now be implemented. A public consultation on the project will open on 9 May with an exhibition at Newcastle Civic Centre. The lease arrangement also includes the adjacent Newcastle City Hall, one of the North East’s best-loved music and entertainment venues, which will be managed by Newcastle Theatre Royal Trust.

Tate has announced highlights of its 2017 exhibition programme, among them major retrospectives of contemporary artists including David Hockney, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rachel Whiteread and Emilia and Ilya Kabokov. Fifty years after the celebrated exhibition at Tate curated by David Sylvester, Tate Modern will hold a major retrospective of Giacometti at Tate Modern and later in 2017, the most comprehensive survey of Modigliani’s work ever seen in the UK. Landmarks in the relationship between art and social history will be explored in Queer British Art, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power and Red Star Over Russia. And The EY Exhibition: Impressionists in London, French Artists in Exile will explore how French artists such as Monet and Pissarro interpreted British culture and Society.

RLSS UK has launched a new pool extraction board (PXB) designed for more efficient swimming pool rescues. Developed in conjunction with equipment specialist Ferno UK, the new PXB will be introduced to pools and leisure centres throughout.

The STA has appointed Dave Candler to the post of chief executive. He came into post at the start of April. Richard Timms has been also been elected as STA’s new president.

Former STA CEO, Theo Millward, has bought Swimtime UK Ltd, a swim-teaching franchise organisation, “for an undisclosed sum… using private funding”, according to a statement issued recently by Swimtime.

Figures from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) for 2015 show that their 57 members, who between them manage 230 galleries, museums and attractions, had a record year. Attendances in 2015 were 3.2% up on 2014 with 124.4 million visitors, 65.2 million of which attended venues in London.