- The Government regulations which apply to gyms are drafted to limit gatherings of people, and then go on to allow a gathering in a gym of no more than 50 people.
- Virgin Active has sought legal advice on the correct interpretation of a gathering in so far as it relates to a gym.
The correct legal interpretation is that the restrictions on gatherings can only be applied to group exercise studios, where people come together to participate in the same class.
- For the rest of the club, members are visiting the gym to do individual exercises unrelated to each other, and therefore this can not be classified as a gathering. Accordingly, the provisions limiting a gathering can not be applied outside of a group exercise environment. This is no different to people visiting a supermarket to do their individual shopping.
- Virgin Active however takes the safety of its members seriously and will be applying a capacity limit similar to hotels and casinos, limiting the number of members at any one time to 50% of what it could accommodate if it maintained Government’s social distancing requirements of 1.5m between people.
- Our clubs are large and able to spread members out safely. The 50% of capacity under Government’s minimum spacing results in the maximum number of people in a club being below 50% of what we would normally have in a club before COVID-19.