Covid Edinburgh: Soft play centres reopen but slots must be booked in advance

Edinburgh Leisure’s three soft play centres reopened on Monday note-0 as Scotland moved to slightly less restrictive rules under Level 0.

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The three centres – Clambers at the Royal Commonwealth Pool, Scrambles at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena and Tumbles at Portobello – will be open 9.30am-5pm, seven days a week, but customers have to book in advance. Capacity has also been reduced and some features removed.

Claire Rusack, leisure manager at the Royal Commonwealth Pool and Clambers, said: “It’s been such a long time coming after an extended lockdown, which meant that we weren’t able to open as originally planned on June 7, but we’re delighted that we can finally welcome back our youngest of customers and their parents and carers to let off some steam.”

The centres are open seven days a week but slots must be booked in advance

All three venues will follow the same daily opening times, with five pre-bookable slots of 60-minutes each to accommodate deep cleaning between each.

Edinburgh Leisure, which runs the venues for the city council, says the frames will be treated with a 30-day virus protection at the start of each month.

Frame capacity has been reduced to 40 per cent of normal and ball pools and modular items have been removed.

The slots can be pre-booked via the Edinburgh Leisure app or website, either eight days in advance for members or seven days for non-members. No parties or special events can be booked at this stage.

Edinburgh Leisure's soft play centres have now reopened

Adults will be able to book a table for a maximum of six people, which will include adults, children, and babies. Adults can remove face coverings while seated at the table but will be required to wear them at all other times, especially when moving around the space. A café service will be available throughout all sessions, but with a restricted menu.

Edinburgh Leisure says in order to adhere to government guidelines, no adults or staff will be allowed in the frames except to support a child with additional support needs.

All adults entering the frame or walking around the soft play area will have to wear a face covering. Space in baby areas where adults are present, will be limited, due to physical distancing.

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