Zest Centre

Unfortunately, me and my girlfriend had an uncomfortable experience at Zest's swimming pool today. It doesn't feel like a welcoming place if you're not part of a certain religious group. We were stared at the whole time by the other customers. We experienced homophobic comments from other women in the pool for simply being two women with short hair. We left our swim session early as a result, wasting our money. This feels harsh as it's not necessarily the fault of Zest themselves how their customers behave. But I advise that you should avoid if you're LGBT. The pool was also extremely busy and unsuitable for actual swimming. It was full of people socialising or just splashing about, blocking room those who were trying to swim. This was a 16+ only session, so it wasn't even kids playing. The changing room is also very cramped and difficult to navigate when busy. The whole place doesn't feel clean either. It's a shame that my local pool doesn't feel welcoming to me.

Unfortunately, me and my girlfriend had an uncomfortable experience at Zest's swimming pool today. It doesn't feel like a welcoming place if you're not part of a certain religious group. We were stared at the whole time by the other customers. We experienced homophobic comments from other women in the pool for simply being two women with short hair. We left our swim session early as a result, wasting our money. This feels harsh as it's not necessarily the fault of Zest themselves how their customers behave. But I advise that you should avoid if you're LGBT. The pool was also extremely busy and unsuitable for actual swimming. It was full of people socialising or just splashing about, blocking room those who were trying to swim. This was a 16+ only session, so it wasn't even kids playing. The changing room is also very cramped and difficult to navigate when busy. The whole place doesn't feel clean either. It's a shame that my local pool doesn't feel welcoming to me.

The swimming pool is an absolute nightmare. I’ve never been to such a dirty swimming pool. It’s overcrowded with women just standing and not swimming, you cannot do laps in this pool as a lot of people just mess around. Everytime I swam I could see chunks of brown substance floating around, hair everywhere as most of the women in the session did not wear a swim cap, and other unusual substances in the pool, it looks like it’s not cleaned enough. I’ve been here two times and both times the pool has been dirty despite me telling staff as such, it looks like it isn’t cleaned often. You also feel out of place and uninvited if your not a part of the community who attend often. The changing rooms are filthy, not a single cubicle is clean, I didn’t even go near the showers so can’t comment on that. I will not be going here again I hope the team can encourage regularly cleaning of the pool and for users to wear swim caps and respect pool clothing rules.