Stafford Borough Council has installed the Legend solution in its newly refurbished Westbridge Park Fitness Centre in Stone, Staffordshire. The site, previously a five a side football arena, now boasts a 68 piece state of the art gymnasium, along with a large aerobic studio. For local soccer players the site will also offer four football pitches.

The centre, which opened at the beginning of July, is hoping to attract over 800 new members in the coming months. John Martin, Leisure Contracts Manager for Stafford Borough Council is delighted with the new centre’s facilities. He comments: “There has been substantial investment in this project which offers brand new exercise facilities and an extensive studio programme for the whole community. We are delighted with the finished product.”

In addition to state of the art fitness equipment, Westbridge Park has also installed the Legend Club Management System. On joining the centre, members receive a personalised card to allow access to the gym, changing rooms and lockers - all from a simple swipe of the card. The innovative technology will also log member visits to allow the centre’s management team to track usage statistics and run regular activity reports.

John Martin continues: “We looked at many different products on the market before we selected Legend. The nature of the set up at Westbridge means the reception desk is not consistently manned yet we need to ensure our members enjoy a seamless journey from the moment they enter the facility. The Legend system fulfilled all of our requirements with its networked swipe card system. In addition, the Legend product was extremely cost effective to install, with set up costs significantly lower than other competitors, and fixed ongoing monthly costs which suited us well.” Plans are also in place to roll out Legend to the other Council owned sites meaning that a single card can give users access to any site.

Steve Webber, UK Sales Manager for Legend, says: “Westbridge Park is a significant project for the Legend team as we were involved with the development from the outset. We worked with the centre to create an advanced technology solution tailored to suit its specific needs. Legend’s association with Westbridge also reinforces the value of the Legend product in similar sites within the UK local authority and trust market.”