THE reopening of Blackburn and Darwen’s leisure and community centres will be delayed until August.
The borough’s public health director Dominic Harrison has said that the government’s July 25 date for gyms and swimming pools to resume operation is too soon in the light of the recent local spike in coronavirus cases.
He announced yesterday that its leisure and community centres will instead look to open on August 10.
Prof Harrison said: “These decisions aren’t ever taken lightly. We know that these centres are popular with our residents and fundamental to their health and wellbeing.
“We also don’t want residents to worry that this is part of a wider closure programme. It isn’t. We are doing everything in our power to avoid that.
“Our staff had been working really hard to take the steps needed to make the facilities Covid-safe and were really looking forward to being able to welcoming residents back safely.
“However, as part of our dedicated approach to reducing the spread of coronavirus in our borough, we are asking residents to play their part by adopting the five new measures we have introduced.
“We’re also doing absolutely everything we can to stem the tide of infection rates. Delaying the opening of these centres is another important step in our local outbreak response.”
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