Sport and Health Heads the Road to Recovery

Now that winter is definitely here, the Sport and Health Team have been looking at how we can improve the physical and mental health of our community.  Being active is a great way to improve both these areas – especially when the days are short and the weather is problematical!  Since the start of lockdown, the ‘Slàinte Mhath’ scheme has been frozen and this will continue until things hopefully get back to normal in 2021.

In the meantime, the ‘Fàilte Air Ais’ (Welcome Back) membership offer will cover areas of our facilities that are currently open such as  gyms and pools and will make regular use of these much more affordable. Individual membership will cost only £10 per month and Family Membership will be only £15 per month.

All that you need to do to take advantage of this offer is to e-mail isladminteam@cne-siar.gov.uk giving your membership number if you have it or name and address and date of birth if you don’t. Please specify if it is an Individual or Family Membership you wish to start. We will activate this as soon as possible and on 1st January, the membership will be charged to your account via Direct Debit as normal, as well as the ‘pro rata’ period from the day you start the membership until  the 1st January. Thereafter, your monthly DD  will be collected at the beginning of each month.  The Admin Team will e-mail you to confirm the changes to your account. As part of the process, ‘Pay As You Go’ prices will increase to £4 / £2 for Concession rate customers per session, which reflects that we have increased Gym session times to one hour for example. Family swim sessions will now be £7.50. If you don’t currently have a membership, please complete the ‘Fàilte Air Ais’ (Welcome Back) membership.  The deadline for applying to be part of the scheme will be December 22nd to allow the Direct Debit process to be in place over the holiday period. Our existing online booking arrangements and controlled access to the building for each activity will continue as they are currently operating.

Tony Wade, Sports Facilities Service Manager said “The last few months have been a really challenging period for the Sport and Health team, as the vast majority of our income is based on customers supporting the ‘Slàinte Mhath’ scheme, which is the cheapest of its kind in Scotland. We hope that our members will get behind the new reduced price ‘Fàilte Air Ais’ (Welcome Back) membership offer over the next few months to support all the services we provide across the islands. As we are sure everyone understands, we are living in a very fast moving and changing environment and we will need to be able to react to any significant changes locally should they occur but we hope this is one of the first steps back on the road to a healthier and happier Western Isles!”