Lord Butler Fitness & Leisure Centre

Negative experience: 90% of people in swimming pool doesn't use slippers. Freely walking in corridors, toilets etc. Children allowed to go from the street and cars barefooted. And administration doesn't care about it. Hygiene? Pff... What a freaky example of barbarism!!!!

Negative experience: Centre has gone downhill in recent years. poor management all round and always stinks of urine. let's hope they can turn it around!

Fantastic experience: Very efficient and friendly

Negative experience: The most dated and scruffy pool I have ever sean even all the lockers don't have lock cylinders in them floor disgusting with cracked tiles

Negative experience: Very old, dated, dirty gym.The machines are also super old... my guess is more than 20 years old.. ! On top of that the staff are very rude, especially a female personal trainer. Cancelled membership after a month, not worth the money until they refresh and update their machines and equipment in my view.

Negative experience: One rude and aggressive staff member. He should not be dealing with the public. Needs to spend less time weight training and more time doing customer relations training. My children and myself left very upset.

Positive experience: I enjoyed the sauna & was too early for general swimming.

Fantastic experience: I love this place! Thank you so much! xx You have a Happy New Year! ✨

Fantastic experience: Covid and flu jab - very well organised

Fantastic experience: Had an early morning swim

Fantastic experience: Excellent as always.

Fantastic experience: The swim school is brilliant since being managed by Tomas. My daughter loves her lessons and it's run very professionally.

Fantastic experience: Great local sports facilities, skate park and Bowls club..

Positive experience: Used the pool and sauna today will be making a return visit. Pool was good, pleasant temperature. Three showers post swim created queues so additional showering facilities would make it better.

Negative experience: Really unhappy. I joined because i wanted a new gym and also to start swimming only to find out the gym is really small, no room to do any free weights only for arms. The pool is very dirty and smelly and so are the changing rooms. So disappointed I’ve only been twice and the second time I spoke to the receptionist asking if I could stop my membership but she said I couldn’t as I’ve joined a 6 months one, she said I could try go ring the company that actually takes the money and not them. I’ve then searched on my emails and it said to call them as they’ll be able to cancel it if it’s within 2 weeks, I’ve then called and the lady on the phone said that they don’t deal with it and that I have to go onto the 1Life website to submit a form which I have. I then got an email back saying that I cannot cancel my membership as it’s been one month?! I’ve replied back on how they’re not keeping up with their cleaning as it’s a requirement and I still haven’t heard back( 3 weeks ago now). I am now paying for two memberships as I can’t gym or use the pool there.

Fantastic experience: Finally after a long Covid break I sign up again myself and my son. As always, staff is very friendly and helpfull. We enjoy playing badminton as well as swimming in a large pool, jumping to sauna or steam room or to the gym. Everything is in ONE place, under ONE roof and in a great value for money that no nearby club can offer! Would tottaly recommend! Come in, sign up and enjoy! :)

Fantastic experience: great clean facilities and excellent range of activities for an excellent price. Friendly staff. I really love it.

Positive experience: Always clean and friendly instructors.

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff and convenient facilities!

Fantastic experience: Very friendly and helpful team members and the site is always clean

Positive experience: It’s 100% the best gym in Saffron Walden. It has a great offer of different activities and spaces to practice all sorts of sports. Would totally recommend.

Fantastic experience: Great gym and good price

Fantastic experience: I particularly enjoy the virtual Les Mills sessions because they take place 'bang on time' and there is always plenty of space and equipment available.

Positive experience: The staff at the centre are extremely helpful and the place is clean,tidy and inviting. Have really loved joining the aqua aerobics group , it's brilliant.

Positive experience: Friendly and welcoming instructors for the studio and RPM classes. Cleanliness of the swim changing area has improved over the past year, as has the customer service at the front desk. Provides the facilities I need at a reasonable price!

Fantastic experience: Fantastic instructors who run excellent fitness classes. Well worth joining

Fantastic experience: Lovely and spacious gym

Fantastic experience: Nice large pool and this is a better centre tha the other local leisure centres as it has a sauna and steam room! Would definitely recommend. To make it perfect, please reserve one lane for public swimming during lesson times as there are a lot of lessons which forbid use of pool for public.

Fantastic experience: Lord Butler is not just your average local leisure centre…they cater for kids with their pool and holiday activities, provide spaces for clubs and provide a safe and well equipped environment for children to grow into sport with support. Parents can enjoy squash, badminton, a fully equipped cardio and weights gym staffed with knowledgeable and helpful people who are proactive but not intrusive. Class activities from Les Mills to Yoga are run by committed instructors who know their material. Recommend a membership old or young - give it a try and see how it works out when you work out.

Fantastic experience: Lovely gym, super friendly and helpful staff. Equipped with everything I need and a great selection of classes too - couldn’t ask for more

Negative experience: Just not worth it. Difficult contract to get out of.

Positive experience: Great vaule for money - Membership includes swimming, sauna, steam room, gym, classes and racket sports... for only a couple of quid a month mote than pure gym. Might be a bit less flash and modern, but it has adequate facilities and far more on offer. Would be even better if they opened later on a Sunday!

Negative experience: Waist of time and money. Terrible opening hours I couldn't just go there when I wanted to

Positive experience: A valuable asset to the community. Activity facilities are all good, but the changing rooms need some proper cleaning procedures in place.

Fantastic experience: Always friendly and helpful staff. Great range of facilities. The site has plenty of parking and their 1life app makes it easy to book swimming and also other glasses

Fantastic experience: Very nice gym friendly & helpful staff. All equipment is the latest & in good order. Plenty of cleaning materials available to clean down after use.

Fantastic experience: Spacious sports centre, various provision of sports

Negative experience: My experience started off great, however, I now cannot wait for my fixed term contract to end. The price was increased a month or two into the contract, without giving me the option to leave. This is quite unfair, as they can raise prices but you aren't offered the option to leave due to a change in the contract. They later introduced a no-show fee. This would not be problem, as I have attended all booked classes, however, my account keeps getting flagged. My card is declined entry into the facilities each time I go in, and I am faced with an unpleasant Front of House Manager who always greets me with an attitude and tells me I have missed classes I never even booked in the first place. Despite complaining about this issue, nothing has been done to resolve this. I have been told I can cancel my membership, but that of course will entail an early cancellation fee. It seems that they no longer care to provide good customer service once you are in a contract. There are plenty of other great gyms in the area, often offering no fixed term contracts, so I recommend trying them first before getting into a fixed term contract here.

Positive experience: Really enjoy the spinning classes but they have now been reduced to just 2 a week when they were daily pre Covid. Not good enough. It’s not as though the studio is being used for anything else.

Negative experience: I regret to say that I held a membership with this gym for a number of months, eventually I came to my senses and figured that I'm paying for a gym with basic equipment, no stretching area, and constant advertising being forced into my mind. Two months after I came to my senses and quit my membership I was looking through my bank transactions, I found that 1life had changed my card an additional two more times since I cancelled my membership. I visited the gym to try and resolve this issue, and spoke to the individual that supposedly deals with refunds. By the end of our conversation he was in agreement that I was entitled to a refund and assured me that he would get it sorted... Around one month later I hadn't heard anything from them and no refund had been issued. I then visited a second time and meet with the same person. He then said that there had been some delays and assured me that it would be sorted shortly... Another month goes by and I still hadn't received my refund, I visited yet another time and when I asked to talk with this person, the other staff told me that he had left. Disappointed to hear this, I asked about my refund and none of the staff had any recollection about my issue. I then asked a member of staff if they could help with my issue and they gave me the number for the section that supposedly deals with refunds. I rang the number and spoke to reception, they said that a refund had been requested but they were waiting for it to be approved by a different section. Around 5 months since I quit my membership, I still have not received any of my hard earned money. I'm thoroughly disappointed with the service I've been given. I wouldn't recommend this gym to anyone, not only for the rudimentary facilities but for their absolutely abysmal customer service. If you're living in the local area then I'd recommend getting a membership with a gym that has much better equipment and also cares about their customers such as JustGym.

Negative experience: Not very clean

Negative experience: Teachers are superb, reception staff friendly but there is zero membership/customer service.

Negative experience: Signed up for a 6 month contract at 1 price and then 2 months in they start taking more money because apparently this is within the terms of the contract to change the agreed price!

Positive experience: Staff are great but the availability of classes is poor. Spinning used to be brilliant on a Saturday but there aren’t even many virtual spinning classes. Amazingly nothing at the weekend despite the studio being empty. The Sunday virtual spin was pulled without any explanation or apparent reason

Positive experience: Manic in car park otherwise good

Negative experience: Closed health suite during times you want to use it after the gym. Staff feel embarrassed asking people to leave but they don't do anything about it. Won't be back because of this. Paying for nothing.

Fantastic experience: Great range of facilities. Friendly and helpful staff. The site has plenty of parking and their 1life app makes it easy to book swimming and other classes.

Positive experience: Recently signed up for swim membership which has certainly saved me a lot of pennies as I attend at least twice a week for Aqua Aerobics classes, if I can get a space, or for lane swimming which I also hope to increase the frequency soon. The Aqua Aerobics classes have become so popular now and I find I'm more often on a waiting list now. I do think these classes should be made available to members firstly and now has the need for extra classes to be added

Fantastic experience: Excellent yoga classes at a competitive price on Sunday mornings.

Fantastic experience: We visited today for the Covid booster shot. Very efficient - done within five mins of parking the car.

Positive experience: Really happy to get my Covid booster and I definitely, definitely don't want to knock the volunteers,,,, but. Too many people inside, must have been 150 in the sports hall at any one time. What irony if a covid vaccination centre should turn into a super spreader event. Can it not be split over two sites? County High sports hall as well

Fantastic experience: Great

Fantastic experience: There are so many activities you can do with your membership. If you are thinking of using the gym then I would 100% recommend you book in for some sessions which Shaza. She is so friendly and knowledgeable and will devise a programme for you to achieve your goals. One of the huge benefits of sessions with Shaza is that she makes sure that the machines are all set up correctly for you to use, that you know how to use them correctly and that you are getting the most out of each one. She gives you such confidence that you can do it and that you belong in a gym, which can be quite daunting at first.

Fantastic experience: love their pool and outdoor yoga classes! clean facilities and happy personel

Negative experience: It’s Ridiculous the extortionate prices for the sauna for 15 minutes?! It’s nearly been 3 months And there still charging and timing these procedures” someone needs to wake up at 1 life and realise if anyone had COVID in the sauna it will still be there ! Overall a good gym. The only reason why I payed monthly was because of the sauna , and for radical change and rules that make absolutely no sense? Going against human rights! “Safeguarding is ridiculous and ageist. I didn’t want to write this review but it seems it’s not only me who thinks this. Would be a 4 star gym if I didn’t go thru this hassle today as staff are nice ,gym is clean. Come on guys get your priorities right?

Fantastic experience: I joined to attend the exercise classes and they have all been a great experience from virtual to teacher-led. From my happiness at the quality of classes, my friend has joined me in signing up.

Positive experience: Need more evening / weekend swim sessions and health suite sorting.

Negative experience: Wouldnt recommend, got stuck on their 1 year fixed contract in the pandemic. Unable to use their facilies even once due to shielding, i only bought it for the pool and then they didnt even bother reopening it. I tried to cancel and was told i could freeze the payment. Since that last communication i have recieved emails from a debt servicing company saying i owe multiple payments.

Fantastic experience: Upon entering I was greeted by friendly reception staff and only had to wait a few mins to be able to enter my swimming session. Plenty of signs reminding everyone to wear masks if not exempt and tokens for lockers on request. You do not need a £1 to get a token, helping to minimise contact between staff and customers. Changing rooms are regularly cleaned and done in a way to reduce contact between swimming sessions with asking customers to wear swimming gear on arriving. Only allowing to use changing rooms on finishing the session. 24 per session is reasonable with lanes not being crowded allowing for great Covid friendly exercise sessions. Some customers only do part of the session allowing for more space and freedom in the faster lanes and making it easy to do exercise without stopping too much to allow faster swimmers to overtake. Overall the experience was amazing, safe and reasonable allowing for a decent exercise session over 50 minutes. I would def recommend to anyone still unsure as you are very safe and can confidently exercise as needed without issue of getting ill.

Fantastic experience: Came for my vaccine. Super fast, lovely staff and simple process. Seems really sufficiently run and plenty of parking.

Fantastic experience: Went to get my first covid19 vacation, staff were very polite and helpful. Strict social distancing, clean and very well organised.

Positive experience: Absolute chaos in the car park - needs some form of marshalling during vaccination appointments Went for first vaccination. One man points all arriving cars down the side of the centre which ends up as a dead end. Then because it's obviously busy the spaces are full and cars are just strewn all over the place. Thankfully I managed to get parked quickly but on the way out a huge queue of bumper to bumper cars waiting to park and not letting me or other drivers out of spaces or get past. Idiots who would rather sit and own their bit of tarmac rather than reverse back a bit and let people get out to free up spaces.

Positive experience: Very friendly and helpful staff. I wish that I could use shampoo after I had had a swim.

Fantastic experience: Well managed vaccination centre with plenty of helpers directing cars to space.

Fantastic experience: Attended my Covid vaccination appoitment here. Very well organised. In and out within minutes and everyone was so friendly and helpful

Positive experience: The perfect vaccination centre!

Fantastic experience: Vaccination centre was brilliant!

Fantastic experience: Had my Covid Vaccine here, and I am impressed with the level of military precision they have, the staff is LOVELY, absolutely LOVELY, helpful and precise, in and out in 5 minutes. If I could give 100 stars I would.

Fantastic experience: Verry good including Hairdresser

Fantastic experience: The Lord Butler Centre are doing their best to ensure a safe and enjoyable gym experience. I have nothing but praise for them.

Negative experience: Facilities great. Staff incompetent. Direct Debits were paused while the centre was closed during COVID-19. Fine, you might think. But they started taking our £30/month again, without any communication, on reopening day. Today (29 August 2020) I was told by a staff member "we're closed now". The doors were wide open and my card had opened the turnstile as usual. There wasn't even a handwritten sign. Apparently they've cut Saturday opening hours from 7am-8pm to 7am-3pm, in line with Sundays. I only found that out after checking the website; there had been no email. All hours have already been cut a lot relative to a couple years ago - I get the impression they're running out of staff... There are three other gyms in town, choose one of them instead!

Negative experience: I’ve just tried to resign from this club and after 18 months as a member have received two rather nasty emails from a debt collection agency!!!!....a second one “suggest you take the necessary actions” after I went in and spoke to the club in person and was told it was all sorted?!?! I’m now being charged for 2 months plus a “late payment fee” despite reinstating my direct debit within 48 hours after a mistake at the bank ie cancelled too soon. I will NEVER say a good word about a club that uses such an aggressive agency for a two day late payment with no option to engage but merely nasty rude demands! Unbelievable. I’m away for 3 months and will join elsewhere when I get back!

Positive experience: The gym is a little small, but has all the necessary equipment. I haven't personally tried the swimming pool, but I haven't heard anything bad about it. There is a large hall which is used for team sports, badminton and other group sessions. The squash courts are well looked after by the squash club which is based here. And there is a smaller studio for other classes. Membership cost to the fitness centre is about average, but it's only 20 for the whole year to join the squash club, and you get discounted court bookings (5.50)

Negative experience: I joined at the beginning of July and there was a problem with the app and it was trying to charge me for classes, apparently because I hadn't cancelled one on time- when I hadn't actually booked any classes before. The problem was solved for a week and then it happened again, this time apparently for a 'no show' for a class that I had attended. Patronising staff kept telling me I wasn't there, when of course I know that I was. I called and was told I'd get a call back but didn't, I emailed 3 times but again no response. All the while I wasn't allowed to book any classes until I paid a fine for the 'no show'. I still haven't had a response to any of my emails. A week later I called again as when I actually go into the gym reception staff just tell me no one from membership is available. I finally got through to someone who was very helpful (still argued with me for a short while telling me I hadn't been to classes that I had attended) but then between us we figured out that if you try to enter the gym and your card doesn't scan, reception staff just let you through without bothering to question why your card isn't working- therefore I had no idea there was a problem and was just racking up fines for multiple 'no shows'. Terrible customer service not worth the money at all. Will be cancelling my membership.

Negative experience: I Don't actually use The Lord Butler but my daughter &husband do for swimming Apparently the changing cubicles are disgusting This has to change for health reasons if nothing else .Why would you go into a filthy changing room ???If this continues our Mp will be involved Please make sure the changing rooms are clean otherwise people will not come Its as simple as that Thankyou .

Positive experience: A pretty average set of facilities. The swimming pool is fairly busy but has a good lane system in place. The locker room is dated. The fitness suite has enough equipment for most programmes, but you'll only be able to get on it if it's quiet. A far stretch from most gyms.

Fantastic experience: Great place lovely staff

Fantastic experience: Nice facility. Thank you for hosting Rugger Bugs on Sundays, my tot loves it.

Fantastic experience: Ive been a member here for 3 months. Ive taken adult swim lessons and the staff hss been extremely helpful with helping me succeed my goals.

Fantastic experience: Great place, Great facilities and Great staff!

Negative experience: I just visited the swimming pool for the first time in a few months with my 5 and 8 year old. At the counter we were handed red wrist-bands, which had never happened before, so we blithely put them on although it wasn't explained what they were for. We only found out when we tried to move from the learner pool into the main pool, where we were told that the red band only allowed access to the learner pool. I understand why a swimming pool might want to create this kind of policy - to try to control numbers in each pool - but for those of us with children at an age split like mine this is really so inconvenient it makes the pool unuseable. We want to move between the pools - even if I leave my 8yo in the main pool most of the time, sometimes I need to go and see her to make sure she's OK, and with a red wrist band I'm not allowed to do this. I saw a number of other parents arguing with the (teenage) life-guards doing their best to enforce this annoying policy. I've never seen any other leisure centre, even very busy city ones, try to force you to pick the pool you will use at the beginning and stick to it. At the very least, ensure you explain the policy thoroughly in advance so that I know not to bother and just to drive to Bury St Edmunds, which has better facilities anyway (and doesn't insist that I choose learner or main pool). I'm leaving a 2 star review because the facilities overall are fine (although the toilets always stink) but I wasn't much of a fan of this pool before - quite a few times I've turned up and the leaner pool has been arbitrarily closed which leaves me driving away with crying children. I was going to post this complaint through their web page, but I filled everything in and clicked the "submit" button and nothing happened. Sigh.

Positive experience: Very good value for money, its basic but has a good range of equipment, plus swimming pool, steam room and sauna.

Positive experience: This swimming pool/leisure centre is a very frat place to spend your time relaxing, swimming and workouts, this is very ideal for sport lovers for sure. Some staff seem totally miserable on lifeguard shifts which is the worst thing about this leisure centre but apart from that it’s recommended from me, my favourite thing about here is that there’s a sauna to visit which impresses me that after a chilly sensation from the pool you can warm up with the steam room or sauna. There’s good activity opportunities here as well which is an utterly great thing.

Negative experience: I have been a part of this gym for about 18 months. The classes and the instructors are great, but the customer service in the rest of the building is awful. I pay £40 a month and today I counted 6 ‘out of order ‘ machines in the gym. at least 3 of which have been like that for a week at least . I havnt been able to get onto a class in weeks,so when I turned up today to be told ‘our systems are down but there is space so go to the class’ - two women who had been queuing behind me ran ahead and took that last space.Now this is not the gyms fault but some sort of manual ,hand written list should be created in the event that their machines are down,because obviously other people are ignoring the first come first serve rule,and the gym staff don’t seem to give a damn what’s fair.

Fantastic experience: Great facility with everything you need in The gym for a great workout. Classes are fun and staff are very friendly and helpful.

Positive experience: Great range of activities. The pools have swimming lessons for babies, kids and adults. Small pool is warmer than big pool. There are sessions for public use as well. Good health suit with sauna and steam room. You can have a pool party or a sports hall party. The hall is also used for badminton, and football. Also kids activities in the holidays and trampolining. Towards the back of the ground floor there is a sports injury clinic 3 squash courts and a well used creche. Upstairs there is a large gym and a dance studio with a good variety of fitness classes. You don't have to be a member to use the facilities but it usually works out cheaper in the end.

Positive experience: Very pleasant staff ,caring and always helpful our stroke club meets there on a Tuesday 2pm Other activities are available swim fits . Come and see or call them 522777 .

Negative experience: The free wheights area is dated and run down. Only one squat rack and barbell. Plates are falling apart. People who go do not seem to care; they rarely tidy up after themselves.

Negative experience: Took our 3 month old daughter swimming for the first time today and was shocked how cold the baby pool feels compared to other sports centres we use in haverhill and Colchester! Only stayed in for 15minutes as I felt a chill let alone what a baby would feel.

Fantastic experience: Joined last week as just moved to Newport. Very experienced with gyms as have been with DL for last two years, plus the Copper Box arena in London. The reception by the team was fantastic. Genuine warmth. The facilities are amazing for the money, about a third of what I paid before. OK, the gym is small but the atmosphere is pleasant. To be able to go for a swim after a workout then the steam room. Most unusual in a council run facility.

Negative experience: Last night at the pool I was told by the rude lifeguard that I wasn't allowed to borrow a float... they are apparently only for children's swimming lessons. As a diabetic and arthritic old crock I find it really helpful to warm up with a few lengths with a float... I was told I should buy my own.Every other pool I have ever used has floats available. How mean , ridiculous and unencourageing.

Positive experience: As a member at the squash club (located here) I would expect the facilities associated with the court be in better order and any issues sorted swiftly rather than having many complaints being bombarded at them from many members before anything is done, other than that all is well.

Positive experience: Good facilities and all, not too keen on service

Negative experience: Very poor customer focus and service in my experience ..... emails to local and national reps go unanswered. Don't expect 'state of the art' facilities like WiFi (!!!!), there has been none for several weeks despite feedback and asking if it will ever be restored. Not great if you need to be contactable for business etc. Very disappointing such a basic is not provided to paying customers. Previous problems with the gym floor and air-conditioning took months to resolve. I waited 20mins to speak to manager, who despite knowing I was waiting, was too busy to speak to me .......

Fantastic experience: Im 21 Lol

Fantastic experience: impressive offering although swimming lessons appear to be booked for an eternity

Fantastic experience: Great place love the facilities