RESIDENTS of Chatteris and the surrounding villages have probably by now all received one of Fenland District Council’s glossy leaflets trumpeting news of visits from the new mobile gym.
It neglected to say when the project would actually arrive in Chatteris, how long it would stay nor how much it would cost to use. It did advise me that I should “take part in physical exercise five times a week”.
I then learned from a council poster that the mobile gym will only be visiting Chatteris once a week, on a Sunday.
The Cambs Times reported that the cost would be �6.75 per session.
As the mobile gym will only be available only one day each week, I reckon it will be over 300 per cent more expensive per session than the price charged to residents of March at George Campbell Leisure Centre using their optimum card discount scheme.
March’s gym includes changing rooms and showers. I fear that when the hugely more-expensive-to-use mobile gym visits Chatteris we will be forced to change into appropriate kit round the back in Furrowfields car park. And presumably the best we can hope for in the way of a post-workout shower might be a helpful member of staff poised on top of the Tardis-like trailer with a watering can!
It appears to us that the mobile gym is likely to be a massive �250,000 white elephant. One has to question whether the decision to purchase was based on any market research and how much the running costs are going to be. Not to mention the anticipated life-span of this depreciating asset.
As ideas go, this isn’t one of the best!
CLLR CHRIS HOWES
Chatteris
Via e-mail
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