PEOPLE NEWS

Community Leisure UK Appoints Mark Tweedie As New CEO

Mark Tweedie has been named as the new CEO of Community Leisure UK (CLUK), the organisation representing charitable leisure and culture trusts.

Tweedie joins CLUK after spending the past 10 years as CEO of two trusts – Active Tameside (from 2011 to 2018) and Active Northumberland (2018 to 2020). He began his career as a PE teacher before moving into sports development and leisure service management.

“Community Leisure UK is a highly respected, values-based organisation with a powerful vision and a great team,” Tweedie said.

“I have the responsibility of building upon Cate Atwater’s (the outgoing CEO) fantastic achievements, and I’m looking forward to doing my absolute best to represent and support the members’ interests and needs. This has never been more important, given the current COVID-19 crisis.”

Community Leisure UK was rebranded and changed its name from Sporta in 2018, to highlight the social and charitable purpose of the organisations it represents.

Outgoing CEO Cate Atwater said: “Over the past 24 months our organisation has worked hard to crystallise our purpose for members and partners, developed our presence and sharpened our teeth to the benefit of members. We hope we have become nationally respected for our work – which is to give a voice to communityfocussed, non-profit-distributing leisure and culture organisations. We know Mark will continue this legacy brilliantly and lead the organisation with kindness and pride in our values.”

Community Leisure UK is a membership organisation representing more than 3,700 facilities across the UK – including gyms, swimming pools, libraries and museums.

Its 110 members operate more than 3,800 facilities, which in total received 233m customer visits in 2019 and have a combined turnover of around £2bn.

Community Leisure UK | 020 7250 8263 | www.communityleisureuk.org

Free COVID-19 Officer Awareness Training

STA’s new COVID-19 Officer Awareness Training programme is now live – and it’s free!

By completing this online programme, participants will gain the knowledge needed to provide an auditable and effective COVID-19 process, specifically within the aquatics leisure industry.

The programme will show anybody how to keep auditable records to prove compliance with both public and private directives on creating a safe operating environment. Compliance enables any organisation to demonstrate that, as far as practicable, it has created a COVID secure environment – a crucial step to regaining the confidence of both clients and employees.

This online programme will provide: • Information to help you recognise the virus • Actions to mitigate transmission • Tasks to ensure fully auditable records are kept.

On completion, participants will also be able to download a COVID-19 Officer Awareness Training certificate.

Claire Brisbourne, Director of Safety Training Awards, said: “Throughout this pandemic our focus has solely been about proactively supporting our members and swim school partners, and in May through our best practice guidance we recommended the concept of appointing a COVID-19 officer, which has since been adopted on a wider scale. To further support this, we have created this FREE new COVID-19 Officer Awareness Training CPD to help organisations gain the knowledge needed to provide an auditable and effective COVID-19 process.”

Safety Training Awards | 01922 645097 | www.safetytrainingawards.co.uk

Golden Coast Voted People’s Choice In South West

Devon-based company Golden Coast has won the People’s Choice Award for South & South West Family Business of the Year 2020, following an open online vote.

The category was part of the Family Business of the Year Awards 2020, an annual event organised by Family Business United. Winners were announced during a live online prem iere on Thursday 25 June.

Golden Coast was established by David Adams in 1977 originally as a pool, spa and sauna installation business, and has and sauna installation business, and has since grown to become the UK’s largest independent distributor to the wet leisure independent distributor to the wet leisure industry. The company is now run by David’s sons Jamie, Shaun and Dominic, David’s sons Jamie, Shaun and Dominic, who lead a team of 32 staff from their premises in Barnstaple.

“All of us at Golden Coast are very pleased to have won the People’s Choice Award for South & South West Family Business of the Year,” said Jamie Adams, Managing Director of Golden Coast. “We are dedicated to supporting our industry and customer service is at the heart of everything we do. To have that recognised is extremely encouraging we would like to thank everyone who voted.

“This award is really a credit to our whole team, because it is their hard work and commitment that has enabled us to provide such a high level of service. I like to think that Golden Coast acts like a family by supporting each other and looking after each other, and to know that other people see TeamGC that way is something for all of us here to feel justifiably proud of.” The accolade has bolstered Golden Coast’s already shining reputation as a major player in the wet leisure industry, and the company plans to build on its success.

Golden Coast | 01271 378100 | www.goldenc.com