Area’s New 150-Station Gym Immediately Reduces to 149 Stations as One Treadmill Is ‘Awaiting a Part’

Leighton Buzzard has welcomed the opening of its brand-new £33.9 million leisure centre with justified civic pride — and the quiet acceptance that treadmill number seven was already out of service by the time the Olympic and Paralympic stars had finished the opening ceremony and got back in their cars.

The Leighton Leisure and Community Centre, which opened on Saturday 27 June 2026, represents the largest investment in leisure infrastructure in Central Bedfordshire in living memory. The facility offers, among other things, a 150-station gym — down, as of the first Wednesday after opening, to 149 operational stations, one of which is “currently awaiting a part.”

“It’s not the 150-station gym we were promised,” confirmed one resident, who was using the adjacent elliptical trainer and had strong opinions about this. “I specifically joined for the treadmills.”

A State-of-the-Art Facility in All Other Respects

To be clear, the Leighton Leisure and Community Centre is, by every reasonable measure, an impressive facility. The eight-lane swimming pool is fully operational. The learner pool is open. Both squash courts are in use. The two multi-use studios are hosting a schedule of classes so extensive that booking anything in the next six weeks requires either insider knowledge or a willingness to set a 6am alarm and wait.

The community room with kitchenette, widely regarded as the facility’s spiritual heart, has been booked solid for the next four months by a rotating cast of toddler groups, Pilates instructors and one woman named Diane who organises a weekly event she describes only as “the thing.”

The treatment rooms are also functioning correctly, which is reassuring, as the physiotherapist who has taken up residence in room two has already fielded enquiries from twelve people who sustained minor injuries attempting to use treadmill number seven before the “Out of Order” sign was installed.

A Proud Legacy of Machinery Awaiting Parts

The temporary unavailability of a single treadmill is, in the scheme of a £33.9 million public facility, a minor inconvenience. It is, however, a proud continuation of a tradition as old as leisure centres themselves: the tradition of the laminated A4 sign, slightly skewed, attached to equipment with a rubber band.

“We apologise for any inconvenience,” the sign on treadmill seven reads. It continues, in smaller text: “Please use one of our other machines.”

There are 149 of those machines. Most of them work. The ones that don’t — two rowing machines and a cable attachment — also have signs.

“It’s a new building,” said a gym instructor, who had clearly been asked about this before. “These things happen. The pool is great.”

The pool is, indeed, great.

Olympic Legend Also Awaiting a Part

Colin Jackson CBE, who officially opened the facility on 27 June, was reported to have “thoroughly enjoyed” the day and to have admired the building’s ambition.

When asked whether he had used treadmill seven, he confirmed he had not.

“I mostly run outside,” he said.

This is, in hindsight, a reminder that Olympic champions did not get to where they are by waiting for machinery.

This is a satirical article. For factual reporting on the leisure centre opening, see: Leighton Buzzard’s New £33.9m Leisure Centre to Open 27 June With Olympic and Paralympic Stars.