Edinburgh gym owner invites Nicola Sturgeon to visit his premises to see how safe it would be if he were allowed to reopen

First Minister says too many changes can’t happen at once

Gyms in England have been open since the weekend but there is no date yet for gyms in Scotland

A GYM owner desperate to reopen after lockdown has invited First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to come and visit his premises to see the “comprehensive” measures he has put in place to allow Covid-safe operation.

Andy Smith, of Lift Gym in Gorgie Road, is appealing for a firm date for gyms and leisure centres to resume business.

Gyms, swimming pools and sports facilities in England reopened for the first time at the weekend.

Andy Smith hopes the First Minister will come and visit the Lift Gym in Gorgie

But Ms Sturgeon has warned gyms in Scotland could have to remain closed for a few more weeks to safeguard the return to school next month.

The Scottish Government has said there are “particular challenges” for gyms in relation to coronavirus, including “poorly ventilated changing rooms” and “the higher risk of transmission through perspiration”.

But Mr Smith, who had been running his gym for just 18 months before Covid hit, says the World Health Organisation has said the virus is not transmitted through sweat.

And he claims it is wrong to assume changing rooms are all poorly ventilated. “It’s tarring all gyms with the same brush,” he said. “It implies an outdated view of the fitness sector, that we’re all in these dingy buildings, whereas we’ve got almost hospital-standard ventilation in our entire facility.”

Most of the equipment at the Lift Gym is already two metres apart or more

The plans Mr Smith has drawn up include equipment spaced at least two metres apart, staff washing or sanitising their hands every hour, taps and doorhandles being cleaned every hour and staff being issued with PPE if required by government guidelines.

Changing room or showers would not be available at least in the initial stages.

Mr Smith said the normal capacity of his gym was 170 and based on the guidelines for England of allowing 100 sq ft per member that would have to be cut to 110, but he planned to cap it at 80 or 90 to start with.

He said he would be keen to show Ms Sturgeon round if she accepted his invitation.

“My message to Nicola would be: ‘Show us your evidence - if we have any weaknesses tell us what they are so we can improve them’ because this has to be a collaborative effort to get our population healthy and fit in the long term.”

Edinburgh Southern Labour MSP Daniel Johnson urged Ms Sturgeon to accept the invite.

He said: “We all know how important it is to get exercise and we also know how vulnerable many businesses are, therefore I would urge the First Minister to take up the invitation to look at a practical demonstration of what can be done to implement strong physical distancing and hygiene measures so we can get the updated guidance the gym and leisure industry needs so badly.”

Gym boss and former Dragon’s Den star Duncan Bannatyne warned on Tuesday he could be forced to close his health clubs in Scotland, putting 600 jobs at risk, if they are not allowed to reopen by the end of August.

His health club and spa firm Bannatyne Group has 11 clubs in Scotland, which he said were being subsidised by his outlets in England.

Mr Bannatyne questioned why pubs have been allowed to reopen in Scotland while gyms remain shut.

“There’s 11 clubs in Scotland and 600 employees - we’d have to lay them all off, if we can’t open, say by the end of August,” he said. “There’s no point in us continuing to try and support them.

“We were very happy to close down when we were told in March, but now is the time to reopen again.”

Another gym owner. William Graham, who quit his job as an Army training instructor six years ago to set up his own fitness business, said he was losing members because he had not been able to open.

He has two premises - CrossFit Murrayfield, close to Murrayfield stadium and a separate weight-lifting club nearby, which includes two Scottish champions and helps train young athletes - but he fears both might have to shut..

“We’re in a pretty bad way. If we don’t open in August I’m thinking we might have to close. I’ve been running this business for five years - I got out of the military to do this - but we’re gradually losing members each week.”

He said he had received one government grant during lockdown and was applying for a second but having to “jump through hoops”

“It’s a bit of a nightmare. The government hasn’t given us any guidance about what we need to do to reopen and no-one has come to speak to us about it.

“But if they came along to the gyms they would see the amount of work we have put into it, we have gone above and beyond. I’ve spent loads of money on cleaning, getting all the products we believe is required.”

And Chris Gray, who owns Gray Mania Fitness in Slateford Road, said the failure to allow gyms to reopen seemed arbitrary. “I’m just frustrated gyms have not been given the go-ahead. I know pubs and restaurants are more of a financial backbone for the economy, but I can’t see why people aren’t allowed to go to a place where they can make themselves physically better.”

He said he had been able to get a grant to help him through lockdown. But he added: “It’s the current financial state that’s worrying, it’s the impending fear of what might happen afterward. The future is just so uncertain.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As the First Minister has said, we want to lift restrictions as soon as possible so these businesses can get back to trading, and we fully understand how difficult any further delay might be.

“It is important these decisions are made carefully to protect people’s health and our progress against the pandemic. We will continue to review the data for new cases and hospital admissions. The First Minister will provide an update on the remaining Phase 3 changes today.”.

Sturgeon warns of cautious approach in latest review of lockdown restrictions

NICOLA Sturgeon will give the Scottish Parliament an update today on the latest relaxation of the Covid lockdown - but she has already warned that too many changes can’t happen at once.And with the return of pupils to school full-time as the priority, it looks as if gyms will be among those told they will have to wait a bit longer.The reopening of gyms was included in phase three of the Scottish Government route map out of the Covid lockdown published in May - the same stage of the recovery plans as the reopening of pubs, restaurants and large retail premises.But they had to keep their doors shut as shops, bars and eateries got back to business.And although the First Minister will announce the result of the latest review of measures today, she warned yesterday she was likely to be “very cautious” in doing so.She said plans to end shielding and get schools back full-time left little room for many other immediate changes. “We can’t just look at whether an individual change is safe,” she said.“We also have to consider the cumulative impact of all of the changes we make and we have to be sensible about the order in which we make changes so we don’t create a situation where we are doing too much too quickly and giving the virus the chance to overwhelm us again.“So there will be parts of our economy and people who will be disappointed tomorrow if changes they want to hear are not happening as quickly as they would like and I’m genuinely sorry about that.”But she said she would give, as far as she could, indicative dates for the future, conditional on continued suppression of the virus.She said: “I want to give people hope - I think there’s a lot right now that should give a lot of us hope. It’s been painful, it’s been hard, but we’ve got this virus to really low levels. But I don’t do anybody any favours if I give false hope or if I’m so desperate, as I am, to get everybody back to normal that I forget about the risks.“I make no criticism of any business person in any sector making a really robust case for their own sector. We listen to that and we try to respond to that as positively as we can, but my duty is to make the overall assessment and we’ve got to be mindful of how all of the individual cases add up - and if we make too many too quickly or if we make the wrong ones in the wrong order then we will make the situation worse not better.“Recovery is best served by making a sustainable basis for it. There are umpteen countries that thought they were out of this that had different parts of their economy open that are already going backwards and seeing parts of their economy close again.”

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