About Us - Parkwood Leisure

Parkwood Leisure offers bespoke management and professional support services for a range of leisure and cultural facilities and health and wellbeing services. Our unique approach is backed by 30 years of experience, which has seen the organisation grow to managing 76 facilities across England and Wales, working with our sub-contractors Lex Leisure CIC, Legacy Leisure, Creating Active Futures and Active Communities Together. This includes eight golf courses under the Glendale Golf brand (in partnership with Lex Leisure CIC), five theatres under the Parkwood Theatres brand, outdoor activity centres (including the Plas Menai National Outdoor Centre, in partnership with Legacy Leisure) and visitor attractions, including tropical zoo Plantasia, and heritage sites Pavilion Gardens in Buxton and Rufford Abbey Country Park in Nottinghamshire.

In addition, Parkwood provides professional services support to local authority trading companies and CVSE organisations, across a range of services including marketing, finance, HR, business systems and IT, harnessing professional expertise and industry understanding to enable local organisations to focus on community delivery.

The organisation has extensive experience in design, build, operation and maintenance. Working in partnership with sister company Parkwood Project Management, we have led the consortia management of 14 new-build projects.

What makes us different?

As a family-owned business built on strong family values, we take pride in offering high-quality services that redefine industry standards and deliver an exceptional customer experience. We prioritise integrity, trust and a personal touch, aiming to be big enough to make a tangible difference, yet small enough to care about every client, creating a sense of belonging and reliability.

Safe and welcoming environments are the foundation, but our interaction goes much further than facility operation, making a difference to the health and wellbeing of all of our communities.

We can only achieve this through our team’s collective dedication and passion. Our team members are partners in our collective success. At Parkwood Leisure, we foster a culture of collaboration, innovation and continuous learning.

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Delivering Services for Local Authorities

Parkwood Leisure is a proud provider of community-focused services on behalf of local authorities across England and Wales, helping to support happier and healthier communities.

In delivering these services, Parkwood Leisure has either a management contract with the local authority or works as an agent of the local authority. Parkwood also works with a number of sub-contractors in delivering these services, including Legacy Leisure, Lex Leisure Creating Active Futures and Active Communities Together.

Management Contracts

A management contract for leisure centre operation is where a local authority outsources the day-to-day management and operation of its leisure facilities and services to an external arm’s length independent operator. This approach enables the local authority to leverage the specialist expertise of Parkwood Leisure, reduce operational risks, achieve cost-efficiency and enhance buying power through our specialist supply chain. By outsourcing operations, the local authority can focus on broader strategic goals, such as improving community health and wellbeing, while ensuring the leisure services are run effectively and in line with agreed standards.

For the customer, this means that their purchases, bookings and interactions are generally with the operator directly, entering into agreements with the operator on their terms and conditions.

Acting as Agent

An “Agent” is a person (or organisation) that acts on behalf of another, known as the “Principal”. In the context of local government, local authorities will appoint an agent to act on their behalf to deliver specific services to the public, such as leisure services, in the name of the authority. The agent will then act as the intermediary between the local authority and the customer in delivering those services. This can be VAT efficient since the local authority is able to treat the supply of certain leisure services as ‘non business’ supplies, meaning no VAT is charged to customers, but the authority is still able to reclaim the input tax on associated purchases.

For customers, this means that when they book an activity or purchase a membership through Parkwood Leisure acting as agent, the customer is entering into an agreement with the relevant local council. Therefore, the membership or user agreement is between the customer and their local council. The agent (Parkwood Leisure) acts as the facilitator between the customer and the Council, managing the day-to-day operations of the facilities and services for the Council so that they can provide their communities with high quality services.

Our Accreditations

Health & Safety is our number one priority and we take legal compliance as an expected minimum standard, pushing our operations to perform in excess of industry standards. Our safety management system is modelled against the HSE’s management guidance contained within the HSG65 publication, based on the principles of Plan, Do, Check, Act. We achieved certification to the international Standard ISO 45001 (Occupational health and safety management systems) in December 2018, being the first major leisure operator to do so and successfully maintained the accreditation at every review since.

We have been certified to The Active Standard. The Active Standard is a quality mark for the physical activity sector, developed by ukactive and independently assessed, demonstrating our commitment to provide facilities that are safe, inclusive and compliant.

Environmental sustainability is a cornerstone of our operational ethos. Since October 2002, we have been accredited to the International Standard for Environmental Management Systems (EMS), BS: ISO 14001:2015. This early adoption highlighted our leadership in the public leisure sector concerning environmental stewardship and this continues to be a central part of our operational focus.

Parkwood Leisure and Lex Leisure instructors achieve qualifications with Study Active

January 8, 2025/by marketing

Parkwood Health and Fitness marks a successful year following £200k investment

June 24, 2024/by marketing

Erewash Borough Council and Parkwood Leisure strengthen community ties with 5-year contract extension

May 21, 2024/by marketing

Parkwood Leisure Celebrates 1-Year Anniversary of Bingham Arena with nearly 350k visits in the first year

May 16, 2024/by marketing

Thousands benefit from new Musculoskeletal Hubs in leisure centres across England and Wales

April 24, 2024/by marketing

Local community benefits from £120k investment into Great Dunmow Leisure Centre facilities

April 19, 2024/by marketing

New scheme at Crosby Leisure Centre empowers children with autism through aquatic activities

April 18, 2024/by marketing

Parkwood Leisure and Legacy Leisure extend North Somerset partnership by five years as £335k investment into Hutton Moor Leisure Centre announced

March 19, 2024/by marketing

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What makes us different?

Our Accreditations

Supporting our colleagues

Supporting our local communities

We have been certified to The Active Standard!

Our My Healthy Way New Year Newsletter is now available!