Parklands Leisure Centre

Fantastic experience: Busy and active leisure centre with a variety of excellently led group sessions, a modern extensive gym, and swimming pool. It's on the same grounds as a wildlife area, cafe and park ( which is beautiful for runs, walks & outdoor exercise) but consequently the whole place can get lively... especially around swimming lesson time! (Which is after school and Saturday morning!) Also beware! Car parking is owned by the council! You have to pay for it but clearly not policed much as so people park anywhere, wait anywhere and use the disabled spaces as drop off or waiting spots! Avoid those bottles neck times, and it's a great gym and vibrant leisure centre for the whole family. The climbing wall and ball pit cafe area is a hidden Gem!

Fantastic experience: Excellent place to exercise

Fantastic experience: Easy, cheap Parking (broken payment machine!) and the soft play is by far the largest and most impressive I've ever seen. Recommended!

Fantastic experience: A nice place to train and exercise. Lots of classes you can do and staff are all very helpful. If you need to know anything about certain equipment staff are on hand to explain and assist you . There is a pool also which is another place to help keep fit .

Fantastic experience: Nice half day time for kids to do lots of activities near park.. friendly staff

Positive experience: I only use the swimming pool, usually laned swimming, so can't comment on other facilities. I do find it a bit expensive even with concession its £3.90, and now there is additional car parking charge (£1) Other than that, I'm happy with the size of the pool, staff are helpful. Pool is in nice setting with surrounding park and lots of light. Sometimes gets bit crowded despite restrictions on numbers post covid. Prebooking system introduced too post covid with 50 minute sessions just like in the olden days is a bit annoying.

Fantastic experience: Excellent leisure centre, we regularly play basketball here, the staff are super friendly , plenty services on site , and good pricing for the court hire made easy with their booking app. Not many leisure centres in Leicester offer basketball court hire. Staff are always helpful and smiling .

Negative experience: I used to send my daughter here for swimming lessons. However since her teacher Grace left, it all went downhill. The kids looked so bored in the water because the other teachers weren't interacting with them or teachinf them anything. Instead you would just see the teachers yawning looking bored. Pathetic. I've now sent my daughter to Evington pool and it's amazing there! She is doing so well now!

Negative experience: Since the KS1 teacher grace left, their class has gone downhill, with no real focus on teaching the kids how to swim. But just keeping then in the pool for half an hour and using a watering can to pour water on their head.

Fantastic experience: We go to Parklands only for the soft play. My son enjoys the soft play and rock climbing, the prices are reasonable but annoying that you have to pay parking whilst being a paying customer. You can bring your own food and theres plenty of seating. I like to see my son when i go im and this soft play area has a lot of hidden areas that are not so visible but its easy enough to get in and check he’s okay. The play area is big enough to keep him busy for quite some time. The toilets are clean and the staff are very friendly and the table areas are kept pretty clean in comparison to some other soft play centres we have been to before.

Negative experience: Website never works and no one ever answers the phone so almost impossible to book.

Fantastic experience: I come here to use the softplay area mostly have done swimming aswell but the softplay is one of the best in Leicester! My kid loves it here come like 4 times a month. Clean staff are friendly and understanding. Keep up the good work guys .

Negative experience: From the poorly designed and misleading online website booking system, management and freaking cold swimming pool that is nowhere near appropriate for under threes to finally the non existent customer service who never picks up a call!never coming back.save your time and money and go elsewhere

Negative experience: It’s taken me a while to write this as I wanted to give the manager a chance to respond to my email and at least try and resolve the issue I was faced with. My son was having swimming lessons here and moved up a level. Bearing in mind he had learnt to swim 10mtrs in the previous stage, when he was moved up the swim teacher expected him to do breast stroke for 20mtrs in the deep end without any aids. Obviously my son was not able to do this and the point of them moving up a level is so that they are taught to swim the 20mtrs and in the deep end. This teacher was rude and did not recognise that she was there to teach him how to swim the 20mtrs rather than expect him to do it on the first day in his new stage. I tried speaking to her but she seemed very ignorant of the situation. She has completely knocked my son’s confidence levels and as a result my son will not get back in the pool. The manager as nice as she is I don’t feel dis enough. I have spoken to her a few times but I still don’t believe she has dealt with the member of staff as she never responded to my email. To be honest we’ve heard the way the teachers speak to the children and not all but many of them are rude and shout a lot at the children. These are children and they are supposed to be teaching them how to swim and building their confidence levels in the pool not squashing their confidence. I would avoid this place for swimming lessons as I am also pulling my daughter out before she experiences something similar. It’s a disgrace to be honest.

Negative experience: I wouldn't personally recommend the swimming here. You only get an hour, and they wrap it up 15 minutes early. The pool itself is decent, it's 25 meters with clearly marked lanes, but the changing rooms are a bit old-fashioned.

Fantastic experience: Despite the many complaints by what I can only assume are entitled, generally grumpy and somewhat uneducated people (at least about the runnings of this type of fitness centre and business), I have personally found the facilities clean and well maintained as well as the staff helpful and friendly. This is a largely app-based fitness centre therefore people expecting staff to be readily available at the drop of a hat, is unrealistic. By limiting staff and making it a more online-based platform, costs can be kept reasonable. People clearly don’t understand what it means to run a business with overheads and it shows in many of the other reviews. My advice to anyone joining - do your research and treat the staff with patience and respect. You will be amazed at how treating people nicely, will get you better treatment in return. There will always be exceptions to this rule - as in the ‘outside world’ - but not a lot can be done to avoid that.

Negative experience: Despite cancelling my membership, the gym continues to charge me every month. Despite initiating the cancellation process, they have failed to resolve the issue, and I have been unable to reach anyone for assistance. This situation is highly frustrating, and it reflects a serious deficiency in customer service. I strongly advise avoiding this gym at all costs.

Negative experience: My daughter was attending the swimming class in everyone active , and although we canceled it after a while, the subscription was collected for ten months, and when we asked for this to be corrected, the customer service closed the issue by saying that we could not make a refund without even offering any solution.

Fantastic experience: Excellent facilities and a nice little spa alongside the gym

Negative experience: Mr Kunal was very rude tonight as we paid for swimming and after 15 mins they closed part of the pool while there weren’t enough space to swim with the family. When mentioned what had happened neither he assisted us nor offered a refund as we had to go out and only managed to swim for 15 mins with so many people inside. Parklands sadly have taken the downhill .

Negative experience: I have been coming at Parklands for many years using the facilities and had also promoted these Centre twice a year through the charity I run. My overall experience is that most receptionists are rude and specially tonight the Operational Manager Mr Kunal had treated me very disrespectful as I had payed for myself and my family for swimming and after 15 mins they closed part of the pool for training . We couldn’t swim properly or safely with 30 people on the other side of the pool, specially with young kids. I went to mention what had happened and complained as we weren’t informed that we would have had a part of the pool and all he said was that there was enough space to swim and he basically I was talking to him and he fully ignored me. I run three companies and if my managers would had treated my customers like that would have been long gone. I will be also taking my kids out of their memberships and inform the rest of the community in my centres. You should treat people like you want to be treated Mr Kunal.

Positive experience: Reasonable facilities but needs upgrading. Showers often not working in the Swimming pool. Reasonably priced. Needs some TLC. Potentially could be much better.

Negative experience: 23 Dec 2023 I took my child for weekly swim lesson today. I was told by front receptionist that pool is closed til 6/1/24 for lessons. I appreciate BUT I asked I never received an email about this break. Receptionist said there was poster in waiting area about this information. Emails are not sent anymore! Asked to show me the posters she replied that these are taken off today! Asked why emails are not sent to the parents, as sometimes we don’t pay attention to posters. Emails can be sent in bulk to all registered users with one click. Amazing reply that admin team doesn’t have capacity to do it. They have an army of staff in admin area that usually have no clue about most of the stuff anyway. On one occasion I requested swim report for my child three times. They never gave me feedback. I asked teacher she said she never received a request from admin staff. I confronted Swim manager he said it was not his problem if I didn’t read the poster. Emails are not sent to the parents anymore. He is new replacement for previous manager. He must be leading his team, I wonder. 1. They need to train their staff about internal protocols and follow-ups. 2. They need to tame their communication skills. 3. They need to use emails for updates. 4. They need to encourage teachers to update swimming reports on App. 5. They need to keep an eye on movements of young staff moving too much around showers when they are not supposed to be there. I encountered 2 cases in parking area where parents were turning up with kids for swimming. Complete waste of time.

Fantastic experience: Especially Rebecca, thankyou

Fantastic experience: Had a stall on Christmas fare Good 1/2 day plenty of customers within centre

Negative experience: Poor maintenance. Showers are dirty. Changing rooms not cleaned. Broken shower not repaired for more than 4 weeks! Is it worth the money?

Fantastic experience: Nice n clean

Positive experience: Used it for family swim. Pros: not too busy, decent price, loads of family changing rooms, have hair dryers n mirrors, plenty of lockers. Cons: family time but still allowed grown men into pool alone. The pool isnt as warm as other places, showers spray too wide so hard to shower baby, baby changing unit is exceptionally filthy.

Positive experience: Nice place to walk nice cafe

Positive experience: My daughter and I attend the parent baby swimming classes every week. The teacher called Katie is very friendly and does an amazing job! My little one seems to love her. The changing rooms need a regular clean! The toilets are disgusting. I don't get why they don't want to sort that out

Negative experience: Try calling them, I'll bet on it that they don't pick up their phones. If you're in a Life or death situation you'll probably be left for dead. Aside that staff are really nice. The centre did a massive refurb which is great but being a leisure centre you'd expect to have a sauna, steam room maybe a jacuzzi? But they don't have any of that.

Negative experience: Can you make the disabled parking clear that it is for disabled badge holders.

Negative experience: No one answers the phones at Parklands! Forced to use the rubbish Everyone's Active website which is impossible to navigate just to book a family swimming session! So I had to drive down there just to book this. What a joke! I really wish each leisure centre had their own website.

Negative experience: Positives: Clean facility, good parking and easy to access Negatives: My daughter has been having lessons for one year, in that time there has been more than 10 instructors changing. There is no consistency, most teachers are ineffective at teaching (except Paul and Minty who are outstanding). When trying to communicate with the providers they don’t bother responding and their staffing issue is hindering progress of my daughter for way too long. We’re looking elsewhere so not recommending the Sunday stage 1 class. Other classes seem good

Fantastic experience: Had my daughters 5th birthday at the soft play and birthday girl and all the kids had a blast. The 2 ladies at the reception of the soft play were really helpful and kind. Will be back to use the soft play soon

Negative experience: Not sure about the birds nests for storing clips, were they a freebie ?

Negative experience: Registered for swimming lessons for myself, my wife, and my daughter. In the first 4 weeks, had 3 different teachers, often not aware of the previous weeks lessons. After a month, I had an accident and could not practice. Asked to cancle my membership, offered a gym membership, rather than cancelling, with a no-reply email. Could not talk to a person. They took direct debit money from my account even when asked to cancle membership. I'll never trust them again, very sad.

Negative experience: Rubbish no one picks up the phone.

Positive experience: Great facilities, but bad smell in the changing rooms. The staff must have received some bad news, no smiles from any of them, particularly the lifeguards.

Fantastic experience: It was great but the coffee wasn't very nice!

Negative experience: Its very nice place for kids and family. Just shame my son is almost second year on same stage of swimming classes

Positive experience: Swimming pool is very clean, but please fix the main door! It doesn't help when you sit and watch your child doing his classes during the winter with -2 outside!

Negative experience: My daughters have swimming lessons and the facility are extremely poor. They have so much staff but the showers, toilets are filthy. They don’t seem to care as I have complained to the manager several times but not seen no improvement.

Fantastic experience: Lots of physical activities and fun for children

Fantastic experience: Softplay centre inside is massive with 18 climbing walls. Kids love it.

Negative experience: Absolute shocking! Always cancelling my child’s booking because of ‘lack of staff’

Negative experience: Very bad staff. Treats us like animals!!!

Negative experience: Extremely bad gym. The manager doesn’t care about their customers!

Fantastic experience: Easy to book for soft play. The soft play area was clean. The staff were really helpful and friendly.

Fantastic experience: Great place with lots of activities to suit everyone. Lovely, friendly staff too.

Positive experience: Nice and clean and always has lots to offer the children. However, price is one of the most expensive in the area and the staff are quite rude. Some allow older children to torment the little ones in the ball pit area, whilst other staff members stalk the area and prevent anyone from entering, even if they have a valid reason. If they could provide a ball pit area for those older than 3 and make it more affordable, this would be the perfect play centre!

Fantastic experience: My granddaughters loved the soft play area, its one of the best we've been to!

Negative experience: Answering the phone is very poor. Tried over several days to get through, nobody answers

Negative experience: Constantly calling leave a message no one calls me back about membership!!!

Positive experience: Facilities are good. Staff are friendly but absolutely shocked and appalled that you have to pay to park!! Not impressed

Negative experience: Can never get hold of anyone for any queries, what is going on? Do they just ignore the phones?

Negative experience: This place has had the same complaint for the last 5 years - they never answer the phone. Today I had a query. I rang membership 5 times and the main reception 4 times. I have been trying since 11:00 and it is now 15:30 and no one is picking up the phone. Any other business would have given the reception staff hell for not doing their job but not Parklands Oadby. They don't really seem to care.

Negative experience: Nice facilities shame it's privately ran so profit is God.No discounts for Over 60s and when you pay for gym membership or swimming you still have to pay to park.It's a no from me.

Negative experience: The reception is poor, the phones seem to not work

Fantastic experience: Great place to take the family. Nice place to have a party. 5*

Negative experience: Can never get hold of anyone, have been trying to amend my membership for days, no one answers the phone, nobody replies to e-mails. The times for swimming aren't very good, I think I'm just going to cancel and go elsewhere. Very disappointing.

Fantastic experience: Great soft play area. Not too big but keeps the kids entertained buts it’s really clean and not very expensive

Positive experience: Place is great. It's a disgrace that you pay nearly £12 for a court and then you have to pay to park.

Fantastic experience: Love this center with it details really everyone were active We spent 3 years in swimming lessions from duckling to professionals Thanks alot to the teachers and the system

Negative experience: Can never get through to anyone on the phone in any department

Negative experience: Soft play structure is good and the gym looks fresh however we stood waiting to buy hot drinks at the cafe for over 5 minutes no one appeared. The staff on the desk could see us but no one bothered to let us know how long we could be expected to wait. Really fancies a coffee whilst the kids were running around, so unfortunately this largely let us down.

Fantastic experience: I play badminton here every Thursday, Parklands runs like clockwork, never any problems, they are a well-oiled machine.

Fantastic experience: Came here so the kids can explore the soft play area. Been to a few before. This one wasn’t as big but it’s got everything you need Really cool rock climbing place Nice sized area for the soft play and everything was clean Lots of slides and cool things for the kids to go on Wasn’t packed either as they only let a select amount of people in Place was nice and cool. Which is what you want when your kids are running round working up a sweat The lady that was working was super friendly Even got some popcorn on the way out ☺️☺️

Fantastic experience: Always clean. Staff are helpful and friendly. Kids love it.

Negative experience: Too expensive compared to Aylestone. And from 4th we have to pay for parking. No thank

Positive experience: Excellent soft play for children. Very clean inside. It was a bit cold though in the soft play area.

Negative experience: We bring our 8 and 10 year old for swimming lessons every week, which are very good. The reason you are getting such a low score is because your toilets are disgusting and unacceptable for anyone to use let alone children. Please can you ensure they are thoroughly cleaned and then maintained throughout every day and evening. I am going to look at which outside authority governs leisure centre cleanliness… expect a visit. Thank you.

Positive experience: Good swimming classes for children, some of the reception staff a little rude and lack common sense! Changing rooms for the swimming area could do with more of a clean.

Negative experience: Cafe is so overpriced for what it’s worth. If you want to pay £5 for a machine hot chocolate, crisps and water then go for it. Better to go Costa! The lady in the cafe is so rude, she doesn’t have basic manners and know how to deal with customers. They really need to work on the customer service they offer to users! The cafe member of staff has made me not want to go again, please stop staring at customers and giving them dirty looks if they have children. And please please stop thinking you are something special with your attitude. Your attitude stinks!

Fantastic experience: Love the timed slot as means it doesn't get too crowded. Everything kept clean so felt safe. Staff very friendly and the food and drinks were nice and reasonably priced. Definitely go again.

Fantastic experience: Just done aqua had a fab time .well worth going .

Fantastic experience: Joined today and did my first swim in a long time. Staff very helpful and friendly.

Negative experience: You cannot plan in this gym. You cannot say today I will do chest, back, bicep triceps or legs. It depends what you find available and end up doing a mix. Mostly youngsters having long chats on the stations not giving up on equipment for long.

Fantastic experience: Very helpful staff, very sanitised. Returned to heart smart class beginners group . Made very welcome and felt very safe and comfortable

Positive experience: More seating area required when swimming lessons are on for children.

Negative experience: It used to provide superb swimming coaching for children. But since everyone active took it over from Leicestershire council it has gone downhill. All the experienced swim teachers have left. They hire young students for swimming coaching (probably pay them minimal wages) who have minimal experience for coaching. Managers are useless. shower facilities are not regularly cleaned, dirty with hair everywhere. Avoid! Not recommended.

Fantastic experience: Very good the grandchildren enjoyed it complied with covid restrictions in the soft play area only so many families are allowed you only get one hour play but from next week it's hour and half.

Positive experience: Only used the pool and the soft play here - can't comment on the gym facilities. The soft play for kids is excellent, plenty for them to do and they have a whale of a time. The pool is basic, and decent enough but overpriced for what's on offer. They provide floats for the kids during family swim sessions. Wish there was a membership plan specifically for swimming. The combo gym/swim membership is too expensive unfortunately. Changing rooms and toilets are often a bit gross, particularly during Friday swimming lessons and I would say this doesn't meet the standards laid out by Everyone Active themselves. The floor is dirty and covered with chewing gum, the benches and the changing cubicles and lockers never seem to have been cleaned either. Given that the centre isn't that old, the facilities are slightly falling apart too with missing hooks and broken locks on doors etc. in the changing room area. There is definitely room for improvement, but having a pool in the local area at all is a massive plus.

Fantastic experience: Popped in to enquire about membership, staff super friendly and clear information given. It looks clean, airy and tidy. Sanitiser available at the entrance to the building. It's certainly somewhere I am considering joining.

Fantastic experience: Good facilities and decent kit around the place. Staff do a good job of cleaning the equipment down throughout the sessions and seem very friendly

Fantastic experience: The staff are friendly and very helpful Thank you Cathy for your help.

Positive experience: Pool is good size, clean and well organised. Changing rooms bit cold but clean(ish).

Fantastic experience: One of the nicest gyms in leicestershire. In a great setting. The staff are very friendly and helpful and very accommodating. The revised refurbishment lets in lots of natural light which makes the place very inviting and makes the workouts more bearable. Furthermore plenty of parking space. I would highly recommend to visit the place before joining elsewhere.

Fantastic experience: Excellent gym. Love the swimming. Well organised easy online booking system. Very covid 19 safe. Hard working staff. Wigston v good too! Well done!

Fantastic experience: Went to Parklands Leisure centre for a massage with Rebecca Alba. Everyone one extremely professional and abiding by covid19 measures. The massage was a welcome treat after having a tough year so far. Thank you Rebecca and Parklands.

Fantastic experience: Great gym facilities, friendly staff

Fantastic experience: First day back after lockdown lifted, credit to the gym for getting all necessary measures in place to keep us and staff safe

Negative experience: Food and drinks are very expensive.and tastes mediocre! They stopped serving coffee at 4.45pm! 4 paninis and a.drink cost £17.20!

Negative experience: Awful customer service and racist. We were asked to wait as the pool was at full capacity. White family comes in after us and they are allowed straight in. Absolutely disgusting!

Negative experience: Great gym , facilities are good. Swimming teachers are fantastic but manager, some staff in the front desk, they are awful. They have no customer service skills. you guys are ruining this leisure centre.

Fantastic experience: Great gym with plenty of equipment. It had a big refurbishment on June and it shows. Staff are friendly and helpful. Lots of free parking outside.

Fantastic experience: Excellent leisure centre, bit pricey but it’s worth to become a member, they have swimming pool, a great sized gym, lot of different classes , kids soft play and wall climbing, the changing rooms are always clean the toilets too. There is a park nearby so great day out with kids Staff is helpful

Positive experience: General staff seem as though they are not bothered about the gym or the general public attending the gym, personal trainers are great and are happy to answer any questions. Can become busy at peak times and will be waiting for equipment.

Negative experience: Good center at parkland but the every one active web page is rubbish

Positive experience: Absolutely Brilliant my kids loved it they're is lots of space so kids are not always banging into each other they're are plenty of slides spirals that not everyone is trying to get to its great to have a choice. I have a 2 and a 6 year old and they were loving it, climbing walls not that we got to that or had time but find yome they're walls are worth it they are very high and all of them are at different levels of difficulty so gives a good challenge! They have vending machines in the playworld and they're is a cafe that the gym open's so you are able to bring things through. I personally think they're was enough tables and chairs they also had lockers for parents or sibling that really want to get involved, but I do believe if it was really busy we would struggle with seating but as i said it's very spacious lots of places to lean. Gave it a 4 star as to find out alot of the information I had to gi they're or ring as they're was no clear pricing I thought they're was but only if you had an active fitness card. I didnt and paid 14. 52 for 2 children and tbh I thought that was brilliant as not on a school day!