Some of Ashby's Hood Park Leisure Centre's staff are retraining as refuse collectors during the Coronavirus crisis.

North West Leicestershire District Council says that despite closing the Ashby venue - and the Hermitage Leisure Centre in Coalville - no-one has lost their jobs as a result.

But the Council says that several members of staff are volunteering to help out while on furlough leave.

And that includes training to work on the district's waste collections - with Hood Park confirming 19 members of staff had come forwards.

The Centre's Facebook page posted the following: "Training Day - The first of 19 members of our fantastic staff team started training as bin men having put themselves forwards to assist North West Leicestershire

District Council in this area of their delivery during these testing times."

Both Hood Park and Hermitage Leisure Centres are run by the Everyone Active organisation in conjunction with the District Council.

The Council is paying the 20 per cent top of leisure staff wages as part of a loan to Everyone Active – and the other 80 per cent is covered by the Government's furloughing scheme.

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Last week's District Council Cabinet meeting approved an emergency financial support package for Everyone Active to ensure that their staff remain employed and that they remain operational in the current Covid 19 crisis.

But some of the staff are volunteering to help the council in different ways.

Paul Sanders, Head of Community Services at North West Leicestershire District Council, said: "We took the decision several weeks ago to ask our partners Everyone Active to close the Hermitage and Hood Park leisure centres in the line with the Government's social distancing advice.

"We were determined to ensure no jobs were lost and acted quickly and decisively to start paying the leisure staff as part of a loan agreement with Everyone Active.

"Since then the Government's furloughing scheme has covered 80 per cent of these wages with the council topping up the remaining 20 per cent through the loan.

"Our priority was to ensure these hardworking staff didn't lose their jobs, and we're proud to have supported that.

"Many of the leisure staff are now volunteering to help the council while furloughed – some are training to work on our waste collections and others are going to be part of our community support network.

"Getting through this unprecedented situation is all about working together to support each other, and this is a great example."

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