‘Sunstone survivors’ call for closed gym to be given Asset of Community Value status

Closed: Sunstone Health and Leisure club in Stoke Newington. Photograph: © Lucy Fisher (creative commons)

Former members of the women-only gym Sunstone Health and Leisure Club, which closed last month, have made an application to Hackney Council calling for the centre to be made an Asset of Community Value (ACV).

Last month (13 June) Sunstone gym went into administration but a group of 200 former members have formed the Sunstone Women Community Group, or “Sunstone survivors”, claiming there is “strong community demand” for a women-only gym in Hackney.

The register of the Assets of Community Value allows local groups to apply for buildings or land that are deemed valuable by the local community.

Once the council registers a site as an ACV it means that if the site is ever offered for sale, community groups first have six weeks to submit a bid.

Jane Holgate, university lecturer and Stoke Newington resident has been a member of Sunstone for 14 years. She said: “After the gym went into administration, lots of women were very upset as it is somewhere they exercise and socialize.

“We all came together and decided we would like the place to stay open if possible. We are appealing to the council to nominate it as a community asset so we can get it back up and running as a women’s gym.

“Sunstone is a safe space. Lots of women want to be able to exercise without men. It is a more comfortable space in which to exercise. For people from different religions and ethnic groups, it gives them somewhere to exercise so it is very important for these women that the gym is made an asset of the community.”

Currently the only other building listed as an ACV is The Chesham Arms pub on Mehetabel Road in Homerton, which was awarded the protective status in March 2013.