Coronavirus: Ruskin gym forced to close 2 days after relaunch

The Star reported earlier this year that Ruskin Fitness Club underwent a £1m transformation, which was set to open in mid-October. The refurbishment, which was brought forward and done over the lockdown, formed part of "a bigger vision to bring a whole new holistic health and wellbeing offer to Ruskin", said operations director Stephen Palfrey.

After launching the facility on Monday, October 13, the gym had to close two days later as St Helens was hit by Tier Three restrictions. Frustrations were then exacerbated when Lancashire was placed under Tier Three later in the week, but with gyms in that area, permitted to remain open.

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"We've invested a lot of money to bring a real quality offer to St Helens and the idea was to go in the middle of October and we basically opened on the Monday and then were shut on the Wednesday. " said Stephen.

"There is an inconsistency (with Lancashire) and that is very hard to understand, especially when there is no data to suggest that gyms were big spreaders so the shock of that was quite severe.

"Obviously we are lobbying MPs to find out what was going on, it does seem they have made a decision and then a completely different one for Lancashire.

"My understanding is the next chance to review it is after the 28 days. I just hope that the government sees sense.

"It will be devastating for us if they don't reverse this decision, you are talking tens of thousands each month we remain closed, that's the reality of the situation.

Meanwhile, the Sticky Wicket restaurant and bar at the site has remained open although Mr Palfrey says there has been some confusion among members of the public over the rules surrounding hospitality.

"There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding over what can be done, we've had people who thought they could not be in the same room as other customers, which you can be as long as you are socially distanced.

"Those rules are not really clear.

"There is also the fear factor and we are finding the same sort of thing that we did in July and that has another knock-on effect. I just hope that we can come out of it quickly."

Stephen added: "The council, both licensing and environmental health, have been excellent with us. They've been nothing but helpful to try and keep us open and get us through this. They have been very supportive as it is a desperate situation as it is for lots of businesses.

"It's important that we stick together and work through this, spend money locally, every small restaurant and cafe needs local support if they're to be here in the future."