Bracknell gym still at risk of closure over contract dispute

The future of the Bodyzone gym in Bracknell Leisure Centre has been uncertain since 2020, after the owner of the gym Sid Bourne’s lease for the space he occupies expired.

This led to a dispute between Mr Bourne on one side, Bracknell Forest Council and its leisure contractor Everyone Active on the other.

Mr Bourne was under the impression that the lease would be extended until 2028 in an email he received from the council’s contract services department.

Although he took an email from contract services officers as confirmation that the lease would continue, he discovered that the lease would not be extended in late 2021.

READ MORE: Owner appeals for community gym to be saved in Bracknell 

Mr Bourne lodged a complaint with the council but was only given two options.

Option one would have only secured the future of Bodyzone until August 31 this year.

Option two would give Mr Bourne the possibility of staying until April 2025, but his rent will almost double.

The first year was priced at £33,000 per annum plus VAT, rising to £65,000 over the next two years, with the third year having a CPI increase as well.

These options were given to Mr Bourne in March last year.

Now, he has pleaded with the council to reverse its decision and grant him a lease extension until 2028 for £33,000 per year.

Mr Bourne likened the rent increase to ‘paying for a house but getting a flat instead’.

He added a neighbouring leaseholder in the leisure centre with ‘three times the space’ of his gym had been offered a rent less than what he’s been offered in the second and third years of option two.

Mr Bourne said: “I’ve got no problem at all with my neighbours, but that is massively unfair.

“This gym has been here for over 40 years, I’ve done about 24 of it.

“The community is going to lose out. I deal with kids who come in normally two, three times a week, and they come in with a teacher and they’re between 11-16, they use the weights.

“I’ve got people with mental health problems, I’ve got people with mobility problems.

“There’s a guy who comes in here with breathing apparatus who’s been coming in this gym for 20 odd years.

“I put a business plan to the council which had an increase of £3000 per year for the period of time they were going to offer me.

“I had two investors sitting at the side prepared to pay my bills off and everything else, we put this forward to them and they came back with these two options.

“They’ve affected my business so much, luckily enough there are still people coming through the door, the community is still coming in and using the gym, we’ll pay what we can pay.

“Why not honour the agreement that’s put in place? I thought the council was here to look after the community.”

Bracknell Leisure Centre in Bagshot Road, Bracknell. Credit: James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporting Service

Mr Bourne’s complaint was answered by Kevin Gibbs, executive director of delivery at Bracknell Forest Council.

The complaint response states that financial terms of a lease offer had not been agreed, and therefore any agreement that had been made by email had lapsed.

The response written by Mr Gibbs states to extend the lease under current terms until 2028 would require the council to ‘substantially subsidise’ the Bodyzone gym business, something Mr Gibbs concluded would not be a ‘fair remedy.’

However, Mr Bourne revealed the council has already been paying his rent for the last three years, amounting to £99,000 (£33,000 per year).

He said: “What I would like the council to do is to honour the agreement that was put in place, they’ve cost me X amount, I’m prepared to say what’s done is done, you made an agreement with me, honour the agreement. This is a community gym, you are here to look after the community.

“I feel it’s discrimination as well. Maybe I’ve got this right or wrong, but how many Black people in Bracknell have got a business?

“If it wasn’t working here, I wouldn’t have been here for 24 years.”

Speaking on the council’s behalf, Mr Gibbs said: “Following a complaint made by Mr Bourne to the council in 2022, a thorough investigation took place and, as a result, Mr Bourne was offered two lease options.

“Unfortunately, Mr Bourne has not accepted either option.

“As such, the case is now with our legal team and we are unable to comment further.”

A petition by gym-goer Carrie Payne, an award winning weightlifter calling on the council to do 'everything in its power' to keep the gym open has received 854 signatures on Change.org.