Residents are flocking to Barnet’s leisure centres after the Labour administration boosted efforts to increase usership.

Across Barnet, visits to leisure centres were up by more than one sixth in January to August 2024 compared to the same period last year, from 1,004,4865 visits to 1,206,814.

The biggest increases by proportion were seen in leisure centres located in least well-off parts of the borough.

Burnt Oak Leisure Centre saw an increase from 105,545 visits to 134,119 visits (27 per cent). Meanwhile Hendon Leisure Centre – situated in north Cricklewood, saw numbers rise from 118,672 to 150,947 (also 27 per cent).

The bump in numbers follows several initiatives to boost participation including the ‘Get Active, Give it a Go!’ campaign that saw a range of activities across leisure centres either made free or discounted.

Programmes have also been actively shaped to encourage participation – such as at Barnet Copthall, where class usage is up 60 per cent.

Barnet Labour’s Cabinet Member for Culture Leisure, Art and Sports, Cllr Anne Clarke said: “The Conservatives ran the council on autopilot. We saw that when they pushed as much responsibility to multinational company Capita as possible. But they also lacked vision across the council.

“The result was they snoozed on the finances and they snoozed on delivering services.

“Now you see the results of a Labour administration that takes direct responsibility for the council and is ambitious for the borough. We are determined to fix the foundations to ensure the council can budget responsibly and that we get the most out of our services, like our leisure facilities.”