Cost of living: Preston gym offers free showers to anyone struggling with rising energy bills

Places Gym Preston in Bamber Bridge are running various new initiatives for the local community, including food collections, a warm winter coat collection and warm showers free of charge.

The gym falls under the Leisure branch of the organisation Places for People, who, over the past few months, have been creating Warm Hubs across the country in reaction to the current economic climate.

Warm Hubs mainly give out hot food and beverages along with a warm place to sit, and there are currently hubs across Preston, with the full list available online.

Wanting to do their bit as well, Places Gym Preston announced they would be offering warm showers from last week. Members of the community can pop in for a free shower every Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 10:00am-3:00pm.

Explaining the initiative behind it, Healthy Communities Manager for Places Preston, Murray Maclennan said: “I'm trying to bring leisure into the community, especially for those who can't access our gym, so we're looking at a wide range of new initiatives. I’ve got about 10 to 12 projects that I'm putting forward that we can roll out in the local communities, especially with Clayton Brook as a focus area.

"These health initiatives are stuff like weight management programmes, pre-diabetes programmes, pain reduction workshops, and to kickstart this new programme, we have recently just launched the warm shower provision because we noticed amongst the communities that there's lots of warm spaces being offered, but none are offering a warm shower provision, so we're just bridging that gap. We're acutely aware that people are deciding whether it's a hot meal, or a hot shower, so we want to stop that decision process going ahead so they can have their warm meals, and they can also come and get a warm shower for free at our facility.

“Anyone can come, we try and make it as inviting and warm as possible so we don't take details, just their postcode so we know what area they’re from, because we're aware for some it’s a pride issue, or they’re not confident, so we just try and eliminate that.”

Along with the additional shower offering, Places Gym Preston has also set up collection boxes in their foyer for non-perishable goods and winter coats to be donated to the warm space sessions at Clayton Brook Community Centre and Church throughout Winter and into Spring.

The collections have only been running for a week but have already been a great success according to Murray, with two food boxes and 41 coats being donated last Friday (January 27.)

Oliver Lee OBE, Chief Executive of Places Leisure added: “We know that people are acutely struggling with increasing energy costs and broader costs of living. We are finding ways to help, offering a space for those in need to have somewhere not only safe and warm, but a place in which they can socialise and be part of a community. We are proud to open Places Leisure facilities this winter and be a part of such a fantastic project and partnership. We hope it makes a small difference at such a challenging time.”