Staff shortages force Turriff leisure facilities to introduce new opening hours

Due to ongoing staff shortages and recruitment issues, opening hours at both Turriff Sports Centre and Turriff Swimming Pool will be reduced from Monday, September 20.

Both facilities have been impacted by a substantial loss of staff since the start of the pandemic and have ongoing issues with recruitment, as reflected in many other industries.

Combined with the need to support Turriff Academy with the provision of indoor sporting activities after the October holidays, the current public opening hours cannot be sustained.

To minimise the impact on customers, a decision has been taken to close them in their least busy periods, remaining open when demand is greatest.

Although the Live Life Aberdeenshire website will not show the updated opening hours until next Monday, the online booking system has been updated to only show available sessions.

Efforts to recruit and train additional staff are ongoing and the facilities expect to introduce increased availability into November.

A spokesperson for Live Life Aberdeenshire said: “The reduction in hours at Turriff really is a last resort after extensive efforts to recruit staff, but we have simply been unable to up to this point.

“While we will continue to try to recruit, we recognise the issues we are having are reflected in the leisure sector across the country, as well as in other industries.

“The changes to hours have been informed by customer demand and we therefore hope that inconvenience will be minimised.”

Swimming pool - Monday 12.45pm-9pm; Tuesday 12.45pm-9pm; Wednesday 7am-12.30pm, 3pm-9pm; Thursday 7am-9pm; Friday 7am-1pm, 2.30pm-9pm; Saturday 9am-4pm; Sunday 9am-4pm.

Sports Centre - Monday 2.15pm-10pm; Tuesday 2pm-9pm; Wednesday 7am-9pm; Thursday 2pm-9pm; Friday 3pm-10pm; Saturda and Sunday - Closed.

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