Kingfisher Tuam

Boots09

Hi Guys,
Anyone used the gym in Tuam since Kingfisher took over? Was there today for the first time. They have packed some amount of cardio equipment in there! Free weights area is a very cramped though I think. What do you guys think of it?

Mars Bar

Haven't been in there since the takeover but I hear they have upped the prices. Bit about it in the Tuam Herald, Town Council are afraid that it's too expensive and primary schools will stop bringing kids to learn to swim. I think they are right too, everyone should know how to swim and should be taught from a young age.

Boots09

If that happens it would be a disaster!!

Muzzy

mars bar wrote: »

Haven't been in there since the takeover but I hear they have upped the prices.

Not true thankfully, Aura was €555 for the year, joined up with the girlfriend and we paid a couples rate €850, was happy out with €425.

And a key-fob instead of that bloody card, at last, no more queuing! Bout time, that used to wreck my head!!

dec25532

Muzzy wrote: »

Not true thankfully, Aura was €555 for the year, joined up with the girlfriend and we paid a couples rate €850, was happy out with €425.

And a key-fob instead of that bloody card, at last, no more queuing! Bout time, that used to wreck my head!!

So is Kingfisher cheaper than Aura? And what is the service like? Is the couple rate €425 or what. Your post is not that clear.

Mars Bar

Muzzy wrote: »

Not true thankfully, Aura was €555 for the year, joined up with the girlfriend and we paid a couples rate €850, was happy out with €425.

And a key-fob instead of that bloody card, at last, no more queuing! Bout time, that used to wreck my head!!

Oh really? Damn Tuam Herald reporters! :mad:

Well then that's bloody brilliant! Gonna chuck out my old aura membership card tomorrow so. Key - fob, good idea. But if there was a queue, I'd always just skip and hope there'd be less of a queue after wards and present my card then. They didn't have a problem with that.

MayoForSam

Looks like our local national school can't afford the rate increase and consequently the kids won't be getting any more swimming lessons in Tuam. Crying shame as they really enjoyed going and it was another way of getting some exercise rather than football training (finished for the winter now anyway).

In times like this, the last thing the local community needs is for a private company like Kingfisher to come along and try to squeeze out the general public in favour of private membership. This pool was largely paid for out of public money by the county council - why should Kingfisher decide who gets to use it?

Hopefully when they realise the days of the Celtic tiger are well gone and people won't pay their inflated fees they might see sense and provide a service for everyone at realistic prices.

dec25532

All is certainly not rosy in the garden (or swimming pool) as an earlier poster suggested. While membership rates have come down, so too have public hours which is a huge issue. The number of public hours for the pool is down by 42% and the number of public hours for the gym have been cut by 64%. Seemingly Galway County Council allocated the contract to Kingfisher without stipulating the public hours that were required. There are no 'public hour' kids allowed in after 5 p.m. It is all geared towards taking out membership which is not an option for many families at the moment.

Boots09

Does anyone know what the public opening hours are now?

tuamboy15

It really put loads of people off going.
Especially school aged children. I went to the gym most days but now that the new prices rules and regulations have come in its been made a hella lot harder to go.
The16 age limit is ridiculous.
Im not far off but i still have to lie to get in.
I have heard however that they have lost huge numbers of clients.
Not least though i hate to say it, foreign people. This group was easily the biggest at the club.
Children and school aged kids were big clients aswell.

Boots09

Can anyone recommend an alternative gym? Like Tuamboy I used to go 3-4 times a week but now find it hard to go in also!

tuamboy15

Boots09 wrote: »

Can anyone recommend an alternative gym? Like Tuamboy I used to go 3-4 times a week but now find it hard to go in also!

I wouldnt really know any alternative.
Not for me anyway. I live outside of tuam and i need to get the bus in/out of school and both my parents work alot so its hard for me to get around much further than tuam.

Mars Bar

Ugh, I had a 3 month student membership during the summer and it was great...

Suileen is closed isn't it?!

dec25532

Boots09 wrote: »

Does anyone know what the public opening hours are now?

As far as I can make out they are 7-9 in the mornings, 3-5 in the afternoons and 7-9 in the evenings and no kids after 5. And this is a public owned facility. The public hours are very restrictive

nelly1galway

hey guys i agree with all of ye, its a total disgrace the way its being run, when i questioned the manager there re public hours he told me it was no longer a public facility and was now a "PRIVATE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE" go figure?? hello our tax paid for it. oh and by the way the athmosphere is awful there id say the staff are fed up with people complaining,

dec25532

Isn't there a public meeting about the public hours in the swimming pool on Monday evening next in the Town Hall. Saw a poster to that effect. Chance for those disgruntled users of the pool to air their views. Don't use it myself.

hamlet1

went for the first time last week since it changed hands and its so different.the little coffee shop has gone and those lovely red comfy chairs in the foyer have been replaced with hard chairs.they actually have swimming lessons taking place during the public session.the atmosphere is very downbeat,its like the staff are ashamed to be working there.bring back aura please!:mad:

Tinder

So with all the giving out did anyone go to the public meeting last night?
I wanted to go but could not get out of a late shift in work.

I think public opinion is changing on this one, and then again maybe people are accepting the situation.

Anyone know what happened, will probably be in The Herald tomorrow.

surfsonya

I have just been reading the comments on Kingfisher leisure centre in Tuam and I wanted to have a bit of a rant. I am a member of the gym mainly because there are no other options in Tuam. I am really hacked off with the place though. While swimming lengths I think I counted about 5 plasters floating in the water and the place generally felt pretty filthy to me.

In addition I am really shocked that Tuam has lost a community facility to a what appears to be a totally unfeeling and commercial company. This in my opinion is not what Tuam needed. Public hours are shocking and prices are so expensive as to be prohibitive for family's and young people to use. Please please Kingfisher though if you are going to take €39 a month from me at least the pool could be kept clean.......

paa9090

Made my long awaited return to the now '' Kingfisher'' leisure centre last Saturday, having been a regular user in the good old aura days i was shocks to say the least.. The place is walking, disgrace like.. I'm currently a gym member in Clare and theres no comparison. I first went in to see the locks have been removed from the lockers? bizarre to say the least.. then went to gym.. many machines out of order no paper towels for cleaning equipment, water fountain broken, free weights area decreases and to be totally honest really poor on all frontiers.. I say bring back the good old days of aura when the gym was clean, functional and state of the art.. All kingfisher have done is cut membership to increase numbers but this in turn has led to a once quality gym slowly becomes a hole.

dec25532

paa9090 wrote: »

Made my long awaited return to the now '' Kingfisher'' leisure centre last Saturday, having been a regular user in the good old aura days i was shocks to say the least.. The place is walking, disgrace like.. I'm currently a gym member in Clare and theres no comparison. I first went in to see the locks have been removed from the lockers? bizarre to say the least.. then went to gym.. many machines out of order no paper towels for cleaning equipment, water fountain broken, free weights area decreases and to be totally honest really poor on all frontiers.. I say bring back the good old days of aura when the gym was clean, functional and state of the art.. All kingfisher have done is cut membership to increase numbers but this in turn has led to a once quality gym slowly becomes a hole.

Seems to be a popular opinion locally. The operators have increased public hours after a lengthy campaign but those behind the campaign should now turn their attention towards the service Kingfisher provide. Was a member but have taken to the roads for my exercise now and it is far more enjoyable.

Mr Keek

I've no complaints about the place during the week, the place does be spotless. At weekends it does be a different story, very busy and i do think not enough staff are in rostered to handle peak times. As for Saturdays, if you don't get there early morning then forget about it. From lunch onwards the place is a diaster. Full of kids making a mess and parents not givin a crap. Found a dirty nappy in one of the showers when the place does provide baby chaging rooms and provide bins.

Funny enough as the public hours are extented the place does get alot dirtier. Was actually better when the public hours were more ristricted. Hopefully members of the public might respect the place rather than resent it and people and members clean up after themselves.

lumo22

hi, anyone know what times on saturdays the pool is open to the Public.

serfboard

Was a member when it was Aura, am now a member in Kingfisher. It definitely had teething problems when it started, but it seems to have settled down now.

The public hours campaign was interesting. The council f***ed up by not stipulating public hours in the contract and Kingfisher were well within their rights to restrict them if they wanted. Word is that the council were paying X thousand subsidy per year to Aura, Kingfisher came in and said they'd do it for free so the council jumped at it. Of course, to do it for free, they needed memberships and so ....

Anyway, thankfully it's now been resolved. I'm glad that a facility that was built with public money can be used by the public. I'm surprised that they didn't keep the shop open, seemed to be taking in a fair amount, but maybe not enough to keep staff manning it. The condition of the pool varies - it has been good and bad both with Aura and Kingfisher, and most of the same staff are still there.

tuamboy15

paa9090 wrote: »

Made my long awaited return to the now '' Kingfisher'' leisure centre last Saturday, having been a regular user in the good old aura days i was shocks to say the least.. The place is walking, disgrace like.. I'm currently a gym member in Clare and theres no comparison. I first went in to see the locks have been removed from the lockers? bizarre to say the least.. then went to gym.. many machines out of order no paper towels for cleaning equipment, water fountain broken, free weights area decreases and to be totally honest really poor on all frontiers.. I say bring back the good old days of aura when the gym was clean, functional and state of the art.. All kingfisher have done is cut membership to increase numbers but this in turn has led to a once quality gym slowly becomes a hole.

Machines out of order? I was there yesterday and there were no machines out of order. Which machine are you on about?
Yes there are paper towels there hanging on the wall just as you walk in and at the far side of the room. If there all gone just kindly ask staff to replace them and they will. Yeah i know water fouintain broken. Theyve been trying to fix it for ages. Free weight area decrease? Not so much, name exactly what was missing then if theirs a decrease.
The facility is still clean and functional as i go there everyday and i never have problems with broken machines or a dirty unclean facility or no paper towels and things like that

Are you sure it was even the tuam gym you went to?

dec25532

In fairness, paaa made his comments a month ago so there is no reason to doubt his word. He is not the only one who says that things are not up to scratch in the place. Maybe Tuamboy took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere else . . .

Tinder

Yea, have to agree with Tuamboy, place has settled down and back to normal, very rare is it that a machine is out of order although the straps on the bikes could be replaced and the place is being kept allot cleaner than when the takeover first happened. Things could be fixed a little quicker for sure.

The staff are first class, helpful and courteous. Although I don't do the free weights thing, there is plenty of room to do all the grunting, puffing, panting and looking in the mirror one could possibly want. (although I think the mirror is too small for some!)

tuamboy15

The gym is just fine.
Went there again yesterday n there was no machines out of order the facility is kept clean the staff are very nice and so on. The only thing i miss is the locks on the locker but its not a big inconvenience
N ya ur right there are a certain group of fellows who cant get enough of lookin in the mirror

Mars Bar

Sorry for dragging this up again. Is 7 - 9 still public hours for the pool?

GY A1

anyone know how much membership is or is it possible to pay a month at a time instead of a yearly sub

amiable

GY A1 wrote: »

anyone know how much membership is or is it possible to pay a month at a time instead of a yearly sub

Give them a call