A wellness center has notified its members that its 72 Jacuzzis will stop operating until the spring to conserve energy in a gym facing “significant” price increases.
Nuffield Health, which has 114 gyms with swimming pools, charges customers up to £63 a month to use its site.
It wrote to members on Monday to say that the jacuzzi would stop operating until spring.
It comes as rising energy bills have forced restaurants, cafes, butchers and shops across the UK to close due to skyrocketing costs to stay open.
In a letter to customers, Nuffield Health said: ‘This is to ensure we can save energy and allow us to keep our swimming pools, saunas and steam rooms open, and we know our members value and benefit from these facilities.’
The memo says Nuffield’s gyms use a ‘significant amount of energy’ and have been faced with a ‘significant’ increase in energy costs.
Nuffield Health has notified its members that its 72 Jacuzzis will be shutting down until the spring to conserve energy in gyms facing “significant” price increases.
It added that future measures could be introduced if required by the energy crisis.
One person who went to Nuffield Medical Center in Derby said: ‘I was not happy when I received the email. The Jacuzzi didn’t work, the bubbles didn’t turn on so it’s basically a bathtub, so it’s ridiculous to be told it’s going to close indefinitely.’
Energy bills are proving to be a problem for leisure centers across the UK.
Greenwich Leisure Limited, a London-based organization that operates more than 250 sports and recreational facilities, has reduced the average pool temperature by 1C to cut costs.
There is also the possibility that they may limit the opening hours of the sauna.
Pool operators in Europe have faced the same pressures as those in the UK. This month it was revealed that dozens of public swimming pools in France had closed because they were too expensive to stay open.
Nuffield Health, which has 114 gyms with swimming pools, charges customers up to £63 a month to use its site (Image: Nuffield Health gym in Sunbury-on-Thames)
It came as Prime Minister Liz Truss was accused of misleading people about the government’s promise to freeze energy bills.
Truss announced a £150bn plan to freeze gas and electricity unit costs – in a move that would save ordinary households £1,000.
But he falsely claimed on several radio stations that ‘no one pays a fuel bill of more than £2,500’.
The £2,500 figure is for the average household, meaning some will pay more and some will pay less.
The limit is on the unit price of gas and electricity, not the energy bill itself.
