Braintree Swimming & Fitness

Positive experience: I love the water aerobics. Good workout without pressure of exercising on a hard floor. I have been going twice weekly but now that I have my over 60s membership I'll be going more often. Going to sample other activities that the centre offers.

Negative experience: Not good experience with the swimming lessons for my child

Negative experience: Too cold for an indoor swimming pool. The showers were cold, the place is delapidated and in urgent need of some repairs. It was an odd atmosphere from staff as if they didn't want to be there. The pool was genuinely quite dirty with plenty of debris foating around on the bottom. Not so bad when swimming on the surface but when your daughter makes you swim down and fetch her sinky, it wasn't pleasant. The local council needs to invest some money or apply for a grant from the National Lottery or something. I can honestly say I wouldn't set foot in there again unless a major refurbishment takes place.

Negative experience: It was the one of the worst gym centre l ever seen so far . It is a filthy place, especially changing rooms, cold shower and horrible staff Staff smokes outsides and very rude Dont waste your money on here

Negative experience: Subject: Staff Members Smoking Outside the Gym Premises On several occasions, I have noticed members smoking directly outside the gym premises, particularly near the entrance. This situation is not only unpleasant but also contradictory to the healthy environment that your gym promotes. As a fitness center that encourages well-being, having individuals smoke near the entrance creates a negative experience for members, especially children. Many families, including myself, bring children to the facility to enjoy swimming and fitness activities. However, it is distressing to have children exposed to cigarette / vape smoke while entering or exiting the gym. Secondhand smoke poses serious health risks, particularly for young children, and it undermines the family-friendly atmosphere your gym aims to provide.

Negative experience: Not visited here for a while and wish I hadn't wasted my money. Staff couldn't be bothered, leaking ceiling in reception, dirty changing rooms and showers, many lockers broken, small pool shut as freezing cold, main pool ok but overall a poor swim for my kids. Won't be going back

Negative experience: Very annoying loud music and the receptionist was very rude when my card didn't scan properly. Not autistic friendly.

Negative experience: Not good really. It’s filthy. The outside of the centre is grubby but it gets worse when you enter. The changing rooms smell terribly!!! The toilets are disgusting. And today the pool was freezing! The life guards seem happy enough so no criticism there but it’s just filthy. I have been a lot and I have to say I always see the cleaner cleaning the glass etc but never seen the changing rooms being cleaned and let me tell you… they are disgusting.

Positive experience: Nice little gym. But music way too loud. It is like being in a club. NOT autistic friendly

Positive experience: Hot water in showers. Yeah!

Positive experience: Nice baby pool and good changing facilities

Negative experience: The small children’s activity pool is good. My 2 year old loves the slide. The place if filthy throughout, the outside is grim as is the entrance hall, the changing rooms, locker areas, showers and poolside. Rubbish and dirt everywhere we cannot wait until Sudbury reopens. Only reason for 2 stars is the little pool was a good temp for toddlers and it wasn’t too busy.

Negative experience: Good price. Ok swimming pool. Life guards are rude. And the website doesn't tell you a thing about the pool closing at 1pm.

Fantastic experience: Very clean and tidy.reasonably priced and not too busy.

Fantastic experience: Clean and well looked after.not to busy either.great facilities

Negative experience: Awful, from when I joined the gym early part of this year there has been a constant issue with the showers, and now no air con. Told that it's all down to head office. May be a cheap gym option, but not worth it in my opinion

Positive experience: Very difficult to book a session. Reception staff are so disinterested...exactly like "Computer says no "...

Negative experience: It's just filthy

Fantastic experience: Decent little pool for children that has a small slide and water features that can be turned on/ off by the children themselves. Friendly staff as well. For the lockers take a small padlock or leave your kit on the side of the pool. It's located near lots of restaurants and also Nameco which has bowling and soft play. You can park for 6 hours for free in the car parks so should have plenty of time.

Positive experience: A mostly good gymnasium with lots of parking but it doesn’t have TRX ropes, hip abductor or hip adductor. The staff are pleasant if approached though have never offered exercise advice. I am grateful that I've only been told they're closing early once (& that was around Christmas) no matter how few customers are in.

Negative experience: Reception staff ignore you when you say good morning or goodbye. Changing rooms are absolutely filthy, floor is grim, showers are always broken. This place makes a fortune on swimming lessons and membership, it needs to be maintained and updated.

Negative experience: I am writing to express my disappointment and concern regarding the current state of cleanliness and amenities at the Braintree Swimming Pool. I visited the facility, I have observed a significant decline in the overall cleanliness of the pool area, which has negatively impacted my experience. Firstly, it is disheartening to note that the pool appears to be inadequately maintained, with visible dirt and debris present at every step. This lack of cleanliness not only detracts from the aesthetic appeal of the facility but also raises concerns about hygiene and safety for patrons. Furthermore, I would like to bring to your attention the absence of benches or seating areas for customers to use while they out of the the pool. This oversight makes it challenging for individuals, including the elderly or those with mobility issues, to comfortably enjoy their time at the facility. As someone who values cleanliness and customer satisfaction, I urge you to take immediate action to address these issues.

Negative experience: Swimming pool nice. But changing rooms toilets reception are filthy dont think its been cleaned in a year, floors disgusting toilets dirty thick dust over everything, Whole place run down

Positive experience: Friendliness was hit or miss with front counter attendant made a complaint about a product we had purchased and clearly demonstrated the issue after a few mins offered a solution by another member of staff who later called us over after solving the issue this gentleman I was happy with the service but the front counter attendants attitude was clearly I'm an idiot waisting his time

Negative experience: Took my young children to the pool in a family session. The changing room floors are dirty and 90% of the lockers are broken, the showers were also cold. With that said the pool is fine.

Fantastic experience: Nice and clean facility.

Negative experience: This place needs a refurbishment or at least a good clean, there was one toilet open and it was disgusting the changing rooms are grim and even the pool has slimey walls and dirt in the bottom of it. It's such a shame to see it like that. I'm going to Witham from now on at least they clean properly.

Negative experience: Swimming pool: 1. Water cold 2. 80 % of showers not working if do water cold. 3.60% of lockers without keys 4.Tater tubes in fun pool -some not working 5. Dirty place at all. I don't recommend it to anyone

Negative experience: All the showers were stone cold so no one was showering before getting in, the changing area clearly hadn't been checked or cleaned in ages and there were used nappies and rubbish on the floor in the family changing room. The children's pool was hardly warm to the point our 15 month old was shivering from the minute he got in (apparently theres a known fault with the heating) and half closed off despite being full due to it being half term. Was told I'd be credited back the fee but still not been done. Won't be going again it's disgraceful

Negative experience: Really disappointed with this pool, we booked for a family session in the fun pool, but only two out of the four water play items were actually dispensing water. When asked, the staff just said one hadn’t worked ‘for ages’ and the other ‘should’ be working, except after being there for an hour session no one had got it working. The changing rooms were very tired looking and not very clean - same for the toilets. Lots of the lockers also didn’t work. We won’t be visiting again.

Fantastic experience: According to my 2 year old, the swimming pool is "too wet." This would traditionally be considered quite a good thing! Who am I to argue, though?

Positive experience: Used the center for family swimming session. Pools were clean. Water was warm enough in adult pool. Lockers need new straps.

Negative experience: Run down, lots of broken lockers and didn't feel clean at all. Reception gave no information on entry and actually knocked my 2year old down opening the gate that swings outward with force. Wouldn't go back

Negative experience: Avoid!!!! Rejoined last week ready to get fit as it’s the new year. I left a couple of years ago due to cleanliness issues along with time commitments with work however, I’m so disappointed. All I see is how £1.2 million has been invested and it’s definitely not been spent here. I have never seen a cleaner, I had a shower Monday morning and complained there was no hot water and hair all over the shower walls from the day before as I was 100% the first person in there Monday morning. The receptionist told me cleaning is done in the evening so I let it go, went there again this morning (Tuesday) the hair is still on the walls in exactly the same places, no hot water in the showers and no lockers are working. Again I said to the receptionist do you know when some of the lockers will be fixed and she replied ‘I wish I knew’. Having worked in health clubs for over 10 years in London the staff and management are dreadful. Their cleanliness is awful and a health hazard. I honestly don’t know why I rejoined other than it being local but it is such a joke.

Fantastic experience: Nice to have relaxing swim.only problem at moment is not always easy to park due to being situated next to freeport village

Negative experience: It's always broken!

Positive experience: Really enjoyed coming here. The learners pool was just a bit small for my liking, I'm not sure if that's because of the lessons going on at the time I went or if the larger area is always fenced off.

Fantastic experience: Love this pool and the gym. I do a lot of lane swimming of which they have a tonne of availability throughout the week. The pools are always very clean as are the changing rooms. The gym is on the smaller side but has really modern and nice machines. Staff are really helpful and friendly. I think the price is really fair and good for a gym+swimming membership.

Positive experience: Great swimming lessons and the kids' pool is now warmer than it used to be, but the changing rooms frequently smell of wee and the toilets in that area are disgusting.

Negative experience: Never answer the phone. Tried a few times now. Just a message re website. Have left a couple of messages in the past but never heard back. Tried to ring again today again no answer. So guess I won't go lol.

Fantastic experience: A really nice, clean and open fitness centre. The building is well maintained and wel lit so it very nice to be in. The pools are large and well kept, changing areas kept clean with plenty of boothes to change in. Reasonably priced with lots of products and services available whatver your needs.

Negative experience: I went for the first time today with my 18 month toddler, whilst he was splashing away in the baby pool someone who worked there shouted at me from above and told me I could not be in the pool as there was no lifeguard and I had to wait 15 minutes, I explained that the reception staff let me through so it was unfair to kick me out, especially when on my own i would have to dry my toddler and then wait? Anyone with a child would know how much effort that would involve, especially when you are on your own. I explained to the staff member this is not good enough and why was I let through if there was no one on duty? He was not interested and was not helpful at all. After 15 minutes a lifeguard came on duty so we went back in, the small pool was taken up by lessons which only left the tiny pool, as he is too small to go on the slide alone I sat with him on the slide, the lifeguard then whistled and shouted no adults on the slide. At this point I thought to myself this place is not a good place to bring your toddler. The place generally is run down, it does not look clean and multiple door handles / locks are broken. I am hugely disappointed that this is my local pool I would advise any parent who is looking to take their child swimming to avoid and I certainly will not be taking my little boy back there.

Negative experience: Please, please can somebody wipe the light bulbs and shades in the changing rooms. Maybe it wouldnt look and feel so dingy in there. Place is going to ruin and the pool is so filthy. How can other pools be crystal clear and yours is light green colour? Its like swimming in the river !! Gym has no presence and has no atmosphere! One set of collars between two barbells. Seriously fusion, sort it out!

Negative experience: Pool freezing, changing rooms need a total refurb, broken lockers broken showers and doesn't feel particularly clean

Positive experience: Cleanliness could be improved in the changing rooms and have better changing facilities for babies other than units in the hallway. The pool its self is great and good value for money

Positive experience: It's a go-to pool, but only because it's the only one in the area. Unfortunately it is often dirty, humid, smelly, and falling apart. Toilets are often closed, metal is rusting and it generally needa a renovation. Unfortunately that's nothing the staff can actually do, but for what they can do, it is kept reasonably clean and safe.

Negative experience: The changing rooms and pool are disgusting there is a tide mark around the pool locker keys either missing or bands broken you still have to book in the hole thing is a sham no wonder people are going elsewhere but at least they are putting subscriptions up

Negative experience: Women with tattoos all up her leg around 25/28 of age on reseption and by pool sometimes ..massive attitude very rude and lazy that's very correct what I put ...the gym is small and limited equipment..pool is avv.. ok I guess lots parking ...a little hard to find my overall experience would of been 4/10 .but after surcoming to that dreadful tattooed women it gets 2/10 poor/below par

Negative experience: I hate how even as a member you have to book in for timed swimming slots. There isn't enough general family swim sessions available in the big pool. The big pool is always really cold. The changing rooms always feel a bit grimy. The children's swimming lessons are good and my child is progressing with them. However even these can get cancelled at short notice.

Negative experience: Changing facilities appalling. Lockers broken, showers not working, shower cubicles not functioning as locks are broken. Fusion is not dealing with maintenance of its buildings. Higher management oes not respond to emails or letters sent by Recorded Delivery. Braintree District Council seem unable to change the status quo. MP also contacted without any impact. Very disappointing.

Negative experience: Tried calling through to speak to them on several occasions regarding the gym and swimming. Called 6 times one day and 8 times another. All at different times and left multiple messages for a call back. Yet apparently knowone is capable of doing so. Such a joke. Dont have a number you can call if you aren't going to answer it

Fantastic experience: Had a lovely time. Gardens just coming into bloom. Be better later in the year when they are out. Lovely cafe and garden shop with lots of choice,and plants.

Negative experience: Please stop trying to cram 6 people to a lane. It means no one gets to swim because we are treading water behind one another. For lane bookings no one can benefit from the hour sessions unless it’s 4 per lane MAX!

Negative experience: the family pool is freezing my son started shaking the minute he went in there. I would not recommend wasting your money.

Negative experience: Children swimming classes usually gets cancelled with no prior notice. No refunds for cancelled classes and no alternative arrangements dates.

Positive experience: Great place with good customer experience

Negative experience: The pool is okay if you can ever book a session. There are no sessions for children on a Friday, Witham has one session at 12:15. Doesn't really make sense, would like to swim with the little one but they make it difficult with 1 or 0 sessions per day.

Negative experience: Is anyone going to talk about how TERRIBLE the website is. I am simply having more trouble making a membership than a newborn would tying shoe laces and that’s a fact

Negative experience: Just taken my grandson to his lesson. Unfortunately he wanted to use the toilet. It was so dirty and the sink had not seen a clean in a very long time. I doubt it had been cleaned that day and this was an evening lesson

Positive experience: Improved a lot after the last couple of years. Kids pool is nice and not too overcrowded. Good price.

Positive experience: We love visiting here with our kids (6, 4 and 2). It's always clean and they love the fact there is a slide! The kids pool has different depths, so it's good for all ages. My only niggle is that you can only book 1 hour. It never seems long enough.

Negative experience: Disgusting. Limescale everywhere. Mould and mildew. Unhygienic toilets. Half the lockers are broken. Poor service.

Positive experience: Son does swimming lessons here. The pool is good but the water features in the kids pool hardly work and a few bits I have never seen working. But kids still enjoy and son enjoys his swimming lessons.

Negative experience: Dirty changing areas and toilets. Very often there is only cold water from showers.

Fantastic experience: I wanted to leave a review for Kylie's Aqua aerobics. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! It's not just for exercise it's for fun! The routines, the music, Kylies personality and energy. SPOT ON!

Negative experience: Very dirty premises, ants on the floors and toilet didn't work

Negative experience: If i could give 0 stars i would!!! Swim session started at 12.30 so we got there and ready to pay at 12.20 the divvys on the tills was too busy nattering and left us waiting 20 mins to be served . Got changed and straight in the pool.... 20 mins of being in the pool we get told to leave because the swim session is over so we paid for an hour swim and got 20 mins !! Complained about it and said ive paid for an hour so we are swimming for an hour ... Got threatened with police infront of my 5 and 2 year old . 2 very distressed kids and i am fuming! Asked for a refund and get told i have to wait 4-6 WEEKS!!

Negative experience: I only visit here because my children love swimming so they need lessons. It is absolutely filthy, we all go home for a shower after each visit. And the toilets are horrendous, staff do nothing to keep them clean or tidy

Positive experience: I take my 2 year old daughter here to use the leisure pool a couple of times a month for a splash about, she loves pretending to swim and paddling in the shallow end. It's really building up her confidence in the water. She's not keen on the slide as she slipped at the top once and it frightened her, she is now very wary of it and needs a bit of encouragement. I'm going to buy her some aqua shoes to use in the pool to hopefully help her gain more confidence on the slide. In the school holidays I also take my 5 year old with us who is stage 2 at swim academy (in a different leisure centre), so is already very confident in the pool. She loves the slide and the sprinklers. My 2 year old very rarely lasts the whole hour but my 5 year old would like longer. The water tends to vary in temperature, sometimes its like getting in a bath, other times it's quite chilly. Maybe im being fussy but in my opinion the changing rooms and toilets are a bit grubby but are fit for purpose. Lockers look like they are slowly changing over to combination padlocks, some do still take a token or £1 coin and have a locker key on a wrist strap, but not sure how long these will be available for. The staff I have spoken to have always been friendly and helpful. I book our leisure pool sessions online using the fusion app which is very easy to use.

Fantastic experience: I really like fusion swimming and gym I recommend it to other people

Positive experience: Good place for a swim. Water temperature fine. Facilities in need of some tlc eg showers not working properly and some with broken or missing doors. Cubicles a bit grubby at times.

Positive experience: It was ok. Not amazing. Small children's area with not a lot going on. A slide and some water pipes. Strangely, a lot of doors were missing. Although a sign was placed on one of the two family changing rooms to say that they were expecting delivery of a new door WC 30th May... We're significantly into June now... You pay almost £5 per adult for an hours swimming session in the kids pool £4 for children over 3, so almost £15 spent and the shower afterwards was hot and cold for us. It was a good day out. Nice location not too expensive, but just not amazing. All round ok...

Negative experience: Impossible to book by phone, you have to open an account to make a booking on line-ridiculous. Family changing room door broken and a very dirty playpen. You now have pay separately for the play pool and lane swim which is a rip off. Can't use shampoos or soap in the showers with no explanation as to why. Can't recommend at all.

Negative experience: baby change door broken and limited changing facilities as a whole for babies . Great play pen in the changing room HOWEVER absolutely filthy. The dirtiest changing rooms I have seen and dusty lockers, I won't be returning .

Negative experience: If I could give it no stars I would. The customer service was appalling. We did not have a good experience with this facility. We booked a the little swim pool session on the 29th of April for the next day (30th of April) but we started to show signs of covid so we thought the best thing to do was to isolate. We called and left a voicemail to which a staff member called Molly who was lovely informed us our situation has been forwarded onto management and they’ll get back to us. They never did, instead a customer service advisor called Abbie emailed me and said all of their swimming sessions are non refundable. When I responded with what Molly told me, Abbie then replied I think quite rudely and said “ unfortunately this refund will not be approved by our head office team as there are other sufficient methods of which we can reimburse you. ” I never received a decision by management and never received a refund for something I had no control over, this excuse was lazy and it just seemed like no one wanted to help.

Fantastic experience: Good place to take the family. Nice and friendly staff that make you feel very welcome.

Positive experience: I booked this for an afternoon with the littlen and its safe to say I won't be heading back. My daughter thought it was boring, luckily we had fun in the main pool anyway. Saying this, the pool was clean from what I could see and the changing area was also clean and well looked after from what I saw.

Negative experience: If your not disabled, under 5, a pregnant mother, an old age pensioner, or invited to a private party, then it is unlikely you will be able to go swimming.

Fantastic experience: Good gym nice and clean plenty of help if needed

Positive experience: Great afternoon fun swimming at Braintree.

Positive experience: Kids pool is ok. One small slide but when we visited only 2 out of the 4 water features were working. The place was clean and tidy when we went on a Saturday lunchtime

Fantastic experience: Good pool, reasonably priced and currently still limiting numbers.

Negative experience: Lockers are in horrendous condition. Doors on changing rooms are either missing or broke. Shower water is cold. Just feels neglected.

Negative experience: Down Huge mess at the reception. Employees completely lost. Poor service and expensive $$. Gym- machines made by Jesus. Up- Good structure for swimmers. Overall NOT recommended

Negative experience: Absolutely disgusting swimming pool don't even know how its still open! The whole place is filthy !! Went with my 2year old after 10 minutes got out as the pool was filthy and what can only be described as poo was floating about i told a member of staff they went to get a net i was watching the whole time by the time she had come back it had obviously gone somewhere because she looked at another member of staff and shrugged her shoulders and walked off After getting dressed went to reception and told them the situation and the lady actually said that someone else had complained on how filthy the pool was The manger is completely useless and rude !!!he told me that a member of staff had fished out a dirty plaster which was i lie as i was watching her the whole time !!! PLEASE DON'T USE THIS POOL IT REALLY IS SO UNHYGIENIC

Positive experience: The Pool and facilities are lovely and kept very clean. Gym is ok useful and useable but the equipment could do with an upgrade starting to show its age compared to other gyms in the area. The staff are welcoming, friendly, supportive and always willing to help you.

Negative experience: Pool ridiculously cold! Very poor maintainance and hygiene. Swimming lessons are terrible. We have had all our children there for swimming lessons and the decline in service, quality of lessons and staff has been worsening. Following several poor swimming lessons, I wrote to the manager and never received any reply I would not recommend this pool for swimming or lessons. There are plenty of other places that will be kinder to your children. I immediately left never to return.

Positive experience: Pool is ok now it's been refurbished but lots of grit in there. Changing rooms are old, tired, rusty and not maintained very well.

Negative experience: Can't give any more stars because the website is so bad, can't access timetable nor prices for swimming. Such a poor site design so I won't be using this leisure centre for swimming!!!!

Positive experience: The aqua class with Kylie was excellent really enjoyed it, but it seems that getting in the classes is really difficult, they could do with more classes, otherwise they will lose members

Negative experience: I took my 2 year old swimming twice to this pool... Never again. You book a slot turn up 10 mins before to get changed but your not allowed in until 5 minutes before your time which means you end up losing time in the pool. The family pool is cold, my little one has blue lips by the end of the 50 mins. There is cold air being pumped in via the vents. No lockers work so clothes are left around the pool.. All showers apart from one are cold which is amazing when you get out of a cold pool... Not!! Toilets are dirty and changing rooms are covered in hair and fluff. Won't be going back again.. Will be trying Maldon!!!

Fantastic experience: Great place to take kids of all ages, although the time are restricted to 1 hour

Fantastic experience: Lovely friendly staff. Clean, no hassle swim. Gym is a tad small but covers everything I need, so all in all would recommend this place.

Positive experience: The shower situation is less than satisfactory... Freezing one moment, too hot the next, some not working, no doors on shower some shower stalls. Apart from the gripe, great facility otherwise

Positive experience: Went for Sunday morning swim in family pool. Lovely warm water and changing rooms relatively warm too. Good range of depth in the pool for little ones still gaining confidence in the water. Not overly packed with people. Showers and toilets slightly grubby but tolerable. If the water was cold I would drop it to two stars so I would hope the water stays warm for all of our future sessions. I had to change my booked session to a later date and this was done without any fuss over the phone. I asked for a refund initially but was told this was not possible. Not a problem for me but good to bear it in mind when you commit to booking your slot. EDIT: The showers seem to regularly run cold every other visit! Thankfully the temperature in the pool has remained unaffected but would be nice for some consistency with the showers!

Negative experience: Water was too cold, showers inconsistent temperature, and told I was in the wrong pool because reception gave me the wrong colour band.

Positive experience: Nice swimming pool for youngsters shame couldn't stay longer but understandably busy.

Fantastic experience: Atlast found a place to get kids to resume swimming. Searched many clubs around and was struggling with timings. Staff and coaches very polite and encouraging. It can busy really busy during school days, especially between 3-5.30 in the evenings. Have an online portal, which will give child's progress. Some of the coaches don't update it meticulously, but some are very prompt.

Positive experience: Pool still cold but otherwise good

Fantastic experience: Yeah it was good you have three pools and A GYM upstairs with equipment like weights something to pull down and up arm work. Good staff and really helpful and fast.