On Monday 28th April, Freedom Leisure extended its portfolio in Gloucester with the much-anticipated opening of Blackbridge Community and Sports Hub, bringing a brand-new facility for health and wellbeing to Podsmead and the surrounding areas in Gloucester.
The Blackbridge Community and Sports Hub has been driven by local people and local needs from the outset, and forms part of a bigger regeneration plan for the Podsmead neighbourhood.
The hub has been brought to life by the Blackbridge Charitable Community Benefit Society (CCBS) which was established in 2021 as part of the legacy of the Podsmead Big Local.
It offers a fitness gym, studio spaces for dance, yoga, Pilates and other classes, a state-of-the-art 3G sports pitch and a hireable social space for community activities. It will also become the new home of the Blackbridge CCBS Youth Team.
We are really excited to open what we are sure will be a tremendous asset to the community of Podsmead and indeed Gloucester. This is going to be a hub for people to have fun, be active and to socialise with friends and family. As a not-for-profit organisation we are committed to improving lives through leisure and we encourage everyone to visit Blackbridge Community and Sports Hub to see this fabulous facility first hand."
Ivan Horsfall Turner
Building on the work of the Podsmead Big Local which has driven forward community projects across Podsmead for the last 12 years, the Blackbridge Community and Sports Hub is another big step towards an exciting future for the local people of Podsmead.
I think that it will a tremendous value for the residents of Podsmead to be able to access the BCCBS locally in walking distance for such an amazing resource for the community is something that the Board of Directors are very proud of achieving on behalf of Podsmead.
Sue Cunningham