A fitness fan running popular Zumba classes felt distinctly less than festive when she was ‘zumbanned’ by the borough council’s Brio leisure arm.
Businesswoman and fitness entrepreneur Jennifer Emery says she was told by Brio she would have to leave Neston Civic Hall at the end of December 2014 as she was taking business away from the town’s recreation centre, which they operate.
The not-for-profit company is currently subsidised by the borough but this is reducing and ultimately will cease entirely.
Having spent the last four years establishing Zest Fitness UK, Jennifer, who has trimmed her own body weight by more than six stone, explained she fully understands how difficult it is for people to take the first step towards getting fit and healthy.
She believes this is why her friendly approach welcoming people into her classes works so well and why her business has become so successful.
“I have built up a loyal following of local people who enjoy my classes and who find huge benefits in attending in relation to fitness, nutrition and self-confidence,” said Jennifer.
She argues it is this hard work and effort that Brio would effectively ‘wipe out’ by denying her the right to continue to run her Zumba Fitness and Metafit classes from the Civic Hall unless she agreed to work for them.
This would mean her becoming an employee of Brio and effectively handing over the goodwill of her hard-won, thriving business.
She told the Pioneer: “I have had to move from the Civic Hall as Brio will not let me teach there anymore, they are trying to push me out of Neston as they feel I am a threat.
“It is a very aggressive approach that Brio Leisure are taking and there are a lot of extremely unhappy residents in Neston who are also shocked at their approach.
“I am providing an extremely valuable service to the community who do not like to go to a gym and who have finally found a class that they enjoy and have built into their weekly routine.
“I have helped hundreds of women lose weight, tone up, get fit, increase their confidence, find friends and more.
“I feel there is effectively a conflict of interest situation in that Brio manage both Neston Rec and Neston Civic Hall, thereby preventing fitness instructors from utilising a community space to avoid competition.”
Labour councillor Justin Madders, who revealed the issue, said: “I am appalled that a successful small business that has worked hard to build up its customer base is being threatened in such an unfair way.
“Brio are meant to be encouraging access to activities for people in the area, not forcing people to possibly have to go to Heswall for the same thing.
“I am deeply unhappy that Brio and the council appear to be preventing people from using public facilities just so they can squeeze a bit of extra profit.
“I am therefore calling on Cheshire West and Chester Council to instruct Brio not to deny Zest, a legitimate business, the chance to carry on with the very popular classes they have run for a number of years.
“I would suggest Brio look at ways of improving their offer rather than trying to steamroll the competition out of business. It is simply an abuse of their position.”
He added: “Local people attending her classes were extremely dismayed at the thought that Jen may not be continuing her Neston classes in the new year.”
Many of them walked to the civic hall to take part and would be unable to get to any of her other classes in Heswall due to a lack of public transport in the evening, he said. Despite raising the matter at a council scrutiny hearing, Cllr Madders says he received no support.
Brio managing director Elly McFahn said: “Brio does not permit fitness class instructors to hire our venues and deliver lessons privately out of its sites. This is company wide and all our fitness class provision is delivered in house.
“Brio does not permit private organisations and individuals to make a profit out of its operation when in direct competition with its own products.
“Unfortunately this booking was overlooked in its compliance with this at the time it was taken in July 2014 but as soon as this came to light, it was raised directly with the hirer.
“It was confirmed that the current booking could continue to operate, but that at the end of the hire period (December 2014), it could not be renewed but could operate instead with the instructor working directly for Brio as do all the other fitness instructors operating out of our venues.”
Jennifer could work directly for Brio and continue to deliver classes from Neston Civic Hall if she wished, she explained.
Elly accepts that Jennifer’s teaching capabilities, ‘are clearly highly regarded and very popular’ and added: “I can confirm that we very much want Jennifer to deliver classes employed by Brio but clearly the decision to do that lies with her.“
Should Jennifer not want to do that, Brio would work to find alternative instruction for the classes.
“If Jennifer decides to take her classes either back to the school, or to an alternative Neston venue, then Jennifer’s current customer base will be able to transfer with her on that basis,” she added.
The outcome is Jennifer has moved to Neston Town Hall with Zumba on Thursdays from 6.30pm to 7.30pm. She also runs sessions in Heswall British Legion and Thornton Hough.
