Riverside Leisure Centre Reviews Summary

Facilities

Pros:

• "There are fantastic facilities provided at the Riverside Authority."
• "The centre was spotlessly clean and tidy, good distancing in the studio."
• "The ice rink provides a fun and exhilarating experience, whether you're a beginner or an experienced skater."
• "The leisure pool is perfect for a refreshing swim, with its slides and water features."
• "It has swimming, ice skating, a gym, trampolining and more."
• "Brilliant facilities here at Riverside, modern up-to-date gym with all the equipment you could need."
• "The ice rink is fun for all ages to skate around and have fun with friends and family."

Cons:

• "What a disappointment the new leisure centre is, pools too small, flume only open occasionally, lifeguards wandering around chatting, restaurant extremely expensive."
• "The most poorly designed place ever."
• "Dirty, horrible horrible place the sooner they pull it down the better."
• "New building but old ice rack, bad management, no enough light in ice rack."
• "The pool size has drastically decreased."
• "Smaller pools, no diving boards and a sensory pool with nothing sensory in it!!!"
• "Ice rink really disappointing. Restricted room rinkside, inadequate changing rooms and poor lighting."

Staff and Customer Service

Pros:

• "The staff is friendly and helpful, ensuring a safe and enjoyable visit."
• "Skate marshals quick to help anyone who has fallen over."
• "Staff polite and helpful in the departments I use in the centre."
• "Staff at the centre were friendly and helpful."
• "The lifeguards are generally helpful."
• "Neil was a kind gentlemen who treated us as we treated him (respectfully)."
• "Wow. A man named Neil has just made my week."

Cons:

• "The swimming teachers are generally rude, obnoxious, self entitled, and unhelpful."
• "The receptionist I encountered this time was unhelpful and unyielding."
• "Customer service was appalling. Staff were very rude and unhelpful."
• "The staff are so rude, don't smile and hardly speak a word to you."
• "The staff are quite snappy at you and rude."
• "Unfortunately the front desk staff do not appear to have had any customer service training."
• "The reception staff are generally awful - rude, abrupt, unfriendly."

Value for Money

Pros:

• "The value for money is really great for chelmsford, especially the home-made malteser cake, yum!"
• "Great value for money for memberships."
• "The lessons are reasonably priced."
• "Good value for money."
• "Reasonable prices, ice-skating, swimming, gym pay to park."

Cons:

• "High prices for a small number of available places and order to book in advance."
• "Oh and expensive parking too."
• "They charge you £10 per section plus parking which is over price."
• "Really poor experience, very expensive when you include the parking charges."
• "Cost almost £10 for 1 adult and 1 child for one hours swim!"
• "Also the food is WAY overpriced, it’s actually ridiculous!"
• "Kind of sad it is much cheaper to swim out of my area. Riverside is quite expensive to pay as you go."

Accessibility and Convenience

Pros:

• "Opposite the leisure centre is a retail park with MacDonalds, Costa & a few shops like decathlon & Matalan, home bargains etc."
• "Booking systems on the app are quick and easy."
• "Ample parking."

Cons:

• "Currently undergoing construction so the car park is hard to access."
• "Not a lot of car parking either."
• "The car park is tiny, there's a covered car park which is member only but by the time you get to the barrier you can't get out because people are behind you."
• "Parking isn't cheap and you cant claim it back unless you are a member."