Soar Valley Leisure Centre

Fantastic experience: Very good clean pool

Negative experience: Doesn't even deserve 1 star. Visable black mould in showers and that's when they are even functioning. Don't inform members of any known issues so expect to turn up and half the gym equipment not be available or 'waiting repairs'. Simple things like a hairdryer has had a sign up saying it'll be replaced for coming up to 4 years now. And if you have an accident on site don't expect them to care about it.

Negative experience: Poor customer service. Aggressive centre management staff. Showers not working. Broken lockers. Would highly not recommend. Good class instructors.

Negative experience: I cancelled my membership back in July and you have continued to bill me since then. I show you a screenshot evidence of me completing the cancellation form and you ignore me for 1 week. If your system has faults you shouldn’t be exploiting customers or maybe you should allow people to cancel in person when they show up at the desk!!

Fantastic experience: Staff really helpful and informative

Positive experience: Overpriced and gym is tiny, the main issue is the equipment is outdated and not maintained (rusty and in need of replacement)

Fantastic experience: Always helpful and knowledgeable staff on hand, a lovely environment

Positive experience: Played on the floodlight pitches. Unfortunately some.of the lights didn't work. Plenty of car parking spaces.

Fantastic experience: Nice place, everything convenient, good swim sessions and gym available.. just think they need to keep an eye on the Dressing room lockers, quite a few not working correct and key bands missing., no hot water at the showers, and showers in the wet suite has never worked for a few years, they have removed the drinking tap…

Negative experience: Terrible customer service ,bad attitude so called managers (remind me of that saying about drunks in a brewery ? ) Gang mentality ,Bad work ethic , cannot say much more .

Positive experience: Good fecilities, but gym is small with limited equipment

Negative experience: Disappointing customer service. Haven’t used their facilities for a few months despite still paying my membership. Decided to cancel, but unfortunately I’d already paid another month and I asked if they would refund - they wouldn’t even after no usage for around 3 months. I definitely won’t be going back considering their membership prices keep increasing but the facilities are deteriorating.

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff decent facilities

Fantastic experience: Read that someone was moaning about poor swimmers getting in the way of lane swimmers. Well just to let you know that there are a lot more lane swims than general swims and that a general swim is for every body so if you don't like it go somewhere else. You cannot have everything your own way all the time. So please stop moaning about poor swimmers ‍♂️ I recently left sour valley as they took the only general swim that I can attend off and I was very annoyed as there was no reason to take it off. At least you have got lane swims?

Negative experience: OLE rrubis not working anything

Fantastic experience: Very friendly staff and always smiling. The sauna is very relaxing after a long day and everyone in there is always really nice. it is very good for the price.

Positive experience: Fantastic staff and pool. But need to refurbish the changing rooms and sort the shower out.

Fantastic experience: Excellent facilities. The app for swim bookings is easy to use and as long as I plan slightly ahead I can always get a swim slot . Well maintained and polite staff and management.

Positive experience: Great place for family swimming.

Positive experience: Not a bad place but you need to fix the showers in the wet changing room. If there is more than 1 shower on, the water turns into a dribble. No good if your halfway through washing your child.

Fantastic experience: Played football. Changing rooms good, water point and good showers

Negative experience: Don't waste your money. The Pool changing rooms are appalling. They're filthy and approx 10 years overdue for a refurb. The Pool floor is far too slippery for an Aquarobics class. The class itself was poor. No verbal communication. If there was we couldn't hear. The instructor needs a mic headset. Rant over!

Fantastic experience: Everything you need.

Negative experience: Football pitch isn't the greatest

Negative experience: Booked a family swim online for 1.30pm for me, my husband and 2 boys (2yr old and a 5 month old) and when we got in the pool it was freezing. Everyone else who proceeded to get in said the same thing, some kids even avoiding wanting to go in because of it. We got out earlier because we could see our boys were not enjoying it as much as they do in their lessons at a different location (due to the temperature) and when we got to the changing rooms, staff were cleaning the side that had all the big family changing rooms and the only rooms with a changing table for little ones. When booking we noticed that it was the only family swim available on a Sunday, why did the staff decide to clean the family rooms during the only family swim session. We had a tiny room for all 4 of us and balancing baby on those thin benches felt unsafe. I went to complain to the front desk afterwards (politely of course) about the temperature in which they had different excuses within seconds, first it was because the temperature outside (13°c) affects the pool and takes a while to warm up and then it was because they had a power outage last night so it's taking a while to heat up. Then I said why did the staff decide to clean the only family changing rooms during the only family swim, the answer apparently being, it has to be scheduled at some point in the day and this was the time they decided to do it. No sorry or they will pass the message to someone or consider next time to do it during a lane swim, it was obvious that I had made a good point because why then, Why not before the family swim or after? And the temperature maybe if there is an issue with it, could you send a heads up message on the app that you book on or something? Disappointed.

Positive experience: We have been complaining about for months about hot showers not working in Sauna. Very poor customer relations.

Negative experience: I’ve been coming here for years and it’s the worst it’s ever been the steam room is not fit for a dog let alone a human I’ve once stuck paper on the wall for it to be there 2wk 3days later. I’ve did this 4 times and it’s like a week or so before it’s cleaned showers cold 3 months and the dinking tape been off for over a year and a shower out of order over a year not fixed and no refund nothing both managers know this and need to understand we all pay good money to come to this gym and it’s like a joke to them I’d check everything works before you waste good money people coming to this gym

Negative experience: If you like a good Wim Hof cold shower, ooya this centre is the place to go. You won’t get a drop of hot water here. In all seriousness though, the lack of a hot shower after Swim School for my child is unhygienic and unsanitary. Im very disappointed with this centre recently. I’ve raised a complaint officially through the Fusion website and I urge others to do the same. I’ve also spoken to the centre manager about my concerns too

Negative experience: The showers have been cold since before Christmas. To add insult to this, they have increased the price of the swim school. The changing rooms stink, toilets stink. I am struggling to see where they have spent the alleged 1 million pound investment. £47.30 for a gym membership is laughable for the facilties on offer. For less than that, you can go to a premium facility, which is clean and has access to sauna, jacuzzi, steam room and a comprehensive schedule of classes. Don't waste your money.

Negative experience: This Centre fills the need for activities but it desperately needs money spending on it. Disabled Toilet with no working light, no hot water for washing hands or showers. Hand dryer in a single mens toilet didn't work. Generally looking grubby.

Positive experience: Great gym. The staff are friendly and make you feel welcome. Also, the facilities are very clean. It's just a shame the showers upstairs (next to the gym/exercise class), have been broken for a while. Some lockers take £1 coins (changing rooms next to the swimming pool, ground floor) and the ones upstairs need padlocks. Parking is free and a good size, never had a problem parking.

Fantastic experience: Called to re arrange swimming lessons for my 2 children. I spoke with Ellen on reception who was very helpful and was able to get both girls in at consecutive times on the same day. Thank you Ellen

Negative experience: I am on an ongoing tarrif. I go there's nearly every day. One star for the staff who are lovely and friendly. One star for the new gym which is excellent. Areas for improvement: 1. It would be nice to have locks on the ladies' toilets which were not broken 2. It would be nice to have warm, not freezing cold showers.

Negative experience: Water fountain in health suit area still not working after over 6 months!! Took most of the session to get the sauna up to temp as turned on 10 mins before....

Fantastic experience: Great for my daughters swimming lessons and family swim :)

Fantastic experience: Nice and clean and not too busy.

Fantastic experience: Sav as last week. Weekly table tennis session with friend.

Fantastic experience: Not my local Leisure Centre so I don't use it's facilities. Therefore I don't really now what the rest of the centre is like. I only travel here to my Karate classes GWMA, which use the dance studio upstairs. As anything changed? Yes the Centre has had some refurbishment works done to the gym & the dance studio.

Fantastic experience: Went to my usual body pump class, came out feeling shattered but energised, always a fun class to do.

Fantastic experience: First visit to centre and very impressed. Staff friendly and helpful and class very good. Hopefully there will be a space soon for another session.

Positive experience: It's a really nice facility for the villages locally the only downside I would say is that the changing facilties could do with an update along with the lockers but other than that it's clean and well kept.

Positive experience: Have always liked this centre - it is clean and staff are friendly and helpful. The only gripe I have, and reason for missing star, is that staff can no longer book things for you at the counter, it now all has to be done by the individual, using an app. My question is, "Why?" What is it with this modern move away from personal service? Anyway, the latter notwithstanding, the centre is still a good place to go and an excellent facility.

Fantastic experience: Very helpful friendly staff. Enjoying my get fit journey so far.

Negative experience: I recently moved to the area and was really excited to try the gym. After a trial session however I was disappointed with how rusty and tired the machines are. The building itself is nice and so are the team but it's really let down by the equipment in the gym area.

Negative experience: Have been unable to book a class with mobile. Doesnt recognise email/password anymore! Absolutely appalling that it's the only way to book and pay. There should be alternative ways, such as making a phone call or even calling by. When there are mobile issues or network goes down, theres little you can do and not everyone has a mobile.

Fantastic experience: Great little leasure centre

Positive experience: None of the vend machines were working. No water either. Otherwise its well kitted out

Negative experience: Lane swim is always fully booked on the app.

Positive experience: Great staff (ray and JS) shame no WiFi available in or ability to book a activities at reception....so much for inclusivity..if you don't have an app you are excluded

Positive experience: Went for family swim with kids aged 5 and 9. It has 1 pool with shallow and deep ends. The pool was quite cold today but every other aspect was fine.

Positive experience: Lovely staff. Swimming pool is great, shame the gym isn't bigger.

Fantastic experience: Very helpful reception staff.

Fantastic experience: Good facilities, great equipment and friendly helpful staff.

Positive experience: Light didn't work in loo - otherwise ok

Positive experience: 2023 edit. Swim school comment only. The quality of teachers seem to have improved. Teachers seem to be more engaged and friendly towards children. Admin staff does a good job of informing parents promptly of any closures and arranging catch up lessons. Overall would recommend. Swim school comment only. Most miserable swim teachers ( with exceptions) we have encountered in last few years. Considering they are meant to teach young children the teachers don't even smile have clearly no passion for swimming and no desire to interact with parents. The facilities are ok just let down by unfriendly staff.

Positive experience: Difficult to get lane swim slots on the app as they go as soon as they are released.

Negative experience: Never fails to amaze me how terrible this place is. Incompetence at every step. There have been no customers there for months due to Covid, and still they havent taken the time to get anything fixed or upgraded. No hooks in the changing rooms, broken locks on the doors, boiler not working so the swimming pool is freezing cold. The list goes on. So much potential for this to be a great place, but it is a mess and has been year after year. Such a shame.

Fantastic experience: Glad to be back, fantastic place

Fantastic experience: Receptionist very helpful when I applied to get "on the system" so I could book and pay for a swimming session. Top marks!

Negative experience: Very difficult to get through to reception.

Negative experience: We used to go to soar valley leisure centre to use the gym regularly, and now we only go when we have to. The equipment is very badly maintained. If you get a few people using the equipment you're left waiting and cooling down because a lot of the equipment has just got a notice on it, saying out of order, sorry for inconvenience, waiting for an engineer. Doesn't help you much when you've traveled there and paid your money, which they are always glad to take.

Negative experience: Don’t get involved with a subscription via Fusion Lifestyle !!!! What a nightmare to cancel, customer service is appalling ... AVOID !!!!

Negative experience: Leisure centre called 1.5 hours before our booking which we had made almost a week in advance to cancel on us (and this wasn't the first time they have done this) !!! Really unfair when you've planned your week only to be given 1.5hours notice!

Positive experience: Nice place for event. Play badminton on regularly here.nice friendly staff.

Positive experience: Football facilities are great. Sand base pitch with four small 5 aside goals and 2 larger 11 aside. Plenty of parking and easy to get to. Only reason for the 3 stars is due to the fact the side gates are closed so if the ball goes over it takes 5min to walk onto the feild or behind near the bushes to retrieve the ball. Overall a great facility for a game of football. Half pitch avaliable if required

Negative experience: Facilities have declined massively recently, seems pointless paying a membership. Alot of the gym CV equipment is new but still only half off it works. Some of the weight equipment isnt brilliant and if theres more than 10 people in the gym it feels way to busy. Changing rooms are horrible and dont bother with the sauna and steam room they are full of mould.

Negative experience: Sadly the facilities and equipment have declined massively in the last year or so. This used to be a great place but the facility management don't seem to care. I only use the pool. The changing rooms are often dirty, many of the lockers are broken, the showers leak and are often cold, the pool is so heavily chlorinated I have to use goggles. Most of the lights in the car park don't work which makes it dangerous and hard to see children who are often around. After numerous complaints and no reply I can't recommend this place!

Negative experience: I can never get through when I call them which then ends up in no room in the crèche or classes, they should let u do it all online without having to Upgrade your membership, it's a shame because the leisure centre itself is good

Fantastic experience: Aaron on reception very helpful and gave concession for badminton court without me asking. All good.

Fantastic experience: Just spoken to Michelle on reception Best phone call ever here Very upbeat and helpful Thank you Michelle Liz

Negative experience: Soar Valley used to be a great leisure centre but is being allowed to deteriorate badly by Fusion. The machines in the gym are old and shabby. Many are repeatedly out of order and others have intermittent faults but Fusion refuse ti replace them. Many members have complained but nothing is done. The staff are great, and they pass on the complaints but there is nothing they can do. I feel we should have a refund of our subscriptions.

Negative experience: Having read the reviews to see what this place is like, i tried to ring up to ask some relevent questions. I was put on hold, then it was ringing for a couple of mins, then music then a voice saying sorry we couldnt answer your call right now but we will ring back within 24hrs and it hung up. Never have i heard such nonsence. Im not happy with this. GET MORE STAFF! I wanted a swim but sharnt bother after reading how dirty it is with bad air con. Having just moved from whitwick right next to their amazing leicure centre, i just wanted to ask about this one. Oh well 2 days later someone might answer the bloody fone! Grrrr...

Negative experience: You can't get a place on the aquacise session on a Tuesday morning for love nor money!! Tried time and again last time it was fully booked with 9 people on the wait list... just ridiculous! More daytime sessions needed

Negative experience: There are some good things about this centre/membership but I will go onto to summarise my experience and why it's not worthy of a better rating. Pros: + You get a diverse range of products/services with a full membership (however I will talk about limitations of these below) + You can book courts/use facilities at 2 other venues. + Staff are helpful Cons: - The gym -There is only ONE barbell*. When it's busy and you would like to undertake compound lifts you're also competing with anyone else who wants to perform barbell squats, deadlifts, powercleans, press etc etc. *There were two barbells when I had joined. The other one got so rusty it was practically red. It got taken out of circulation after I complained but it shouldn't have got to that stage anyway. This suggests a complete disregard for care of equipment, compromising health and safety in order to turn out profit. -There is no dedicated barbell bench station. There were some smith klines you could be put a bench under but they seem to be in constant state of disrepair. You'll find people using the squat rack to bench... using the ONE barbell. -The equipment is crammed into a small area. When it's busy it's incredibly claustrophobic. -Opening times. -The centre opens at 7am on weekdays and shuts at 22:00. It's impossible if you start work early. It's incredibly busy in the evenings (but does subside during the last hour and a half. This constrains routines you want to establish, making it far easier to miss a session if you want to avoid the hustle and bustle. (Or turn up early only do half your work out because the rest of the time you're waiting to use a piece of equipment.) -Congestion on courts -Even though a full membership allows you to book badminton courts, you'll be hard pressed to get onto one during peak times. The courts are also hired out for events/classes so you're competing with them as well as fellow who would like to play. -Waiting lists for classes - Sure a membership allows for access to classes, but similar to the courts, you are likely to be number 15 on the waiting list! -Phone waiting times. -if you need to ring in and book a court/speak to reception you are likely to have to attempt this 3-4 times before you can get a hold of someone. I've seen the queues for people trying to enter the centre stretch to the door so its understandable how the staff don't prioritise phone lines. However, this is a systematic failure and it's not even considered a problem. To summarise you need to bear in mind a few extra points if you're in full-time work. Your schedule should accommodate for congestion and lack of resources. Will it be worth your ~£500/year?

Negative experience: Air con never right, equipment out of order, and made really hard to get out of a membership even when it was on medical grounds. It's ran by fusion gyms yet they claim to have nothing to do with membership cancellation as did the staff who said to contact fusion and gave wrong email details repeatedly. When complained to manager he said why didn't I just cancel the direct debit and refused a refund for the access month which had been created by staff incompetents so if your trying to leave jus cancel direct debit and go to a gym with equipment that works and isn't freezing or boiling at random times!!!

Negative experience: Tried all this week to get them on the phone. Always get the same message no matter which extension I try. They are worse than useless at customer service.

Fantastic experience: Brilliant pool and staff

Negative experience: The gym is quite small and has a limited number of machines which would be fine if they were not always out of order. This has been a problem ever since I joined, it used to be a 3 day turnaround for repair, now it is 7; that doesn't include the machines that are in a poor state of repair, CV equipment that turns off half way through with an 'interface' problem. H&S isn't a priority with equipment squeezed into such a small place. As for the pool, people swim side by side, sometimes it's stopped, sometimes it isn't; fast swimmers use the middle of the slow wide lane as their own fast lane, all the time the lifeguards sit and do nothing. You can moan, complain about these things as much as you like, they don't listen.

Negative experience: I've been trying for days to contact them, no answer, no return calls.

Negative experience: The pool is mainly fine but could do with more of a clean around changing rooms. The swim groups for kids are small and kids progress, although badges/certificates are not given out. A lot of the staff are helpful but had a terrible experience with one older member of staff who bullied my 7 year old in a swim lesson and pushed me while screaming in my face when I tried to discuss it. I complained to the manager but only got a reply when I complained to the council. Not great customer service.

Positive experience: Lots of different classes but people often book weeks ahead which means others can't book due to classes being full. Showers need a complete revamp very basic with curtains in some changing rooms.. Need doors instead for secure privacy. Overall. Worth joining all staff are friendly and helpful. Club members are nice too. I have not had a problem with anyone at the gym.

Negative experience: Been trying to contact these for over 2 hours, no answer, very bad customer service

Negative experience: Well this is not good!!! Tried to contact regarding an NPLQ renewal today, no one on either of the phone extensions and a recorded message saying they will get back to me in 24 hrs. NOT ACCEPTABLE and terrible customer service!!!

Positive experience: Not as clean as I would like. Staff spent a lot of time complaining. Pool was dirty. Felt bit worn and tired.

Fantastic experience: Gut gut