SPORTING fever gripped Colchester before the Olympics had even begun, latest figures reveal.
A total of 305,776  people used Colchester Council’s leisure facilities between April and June this year – 1,845 more than during the same period in 2011.
However, fitness fanatic Cyril Coppin fears that total will be sharply reduced if the council goes ahead with plans to scrap loss-making sessions at its gyms.
Mr Coppin, 73, of Delamere Road, Colchester, has been a regular at the gym at the Leisure World Highwoods Sports Centre for 15 years.
He was furious to discover the centre is stopping sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings  later this year to save money.
Mr Coppin said: “It’s a good social outlet. I do a bit of a workout there and you meet people.
“Young mums go up there, too. It’s not just old people like me.”
The council shares the sports centre’s facilities with the Gilberd School and is making the cuts because its leisure service made a loss of £804,000 last year.
It runs leisure centres in Cowrdray Avenue, Highwoods and Tiptree, as well as tennis courts in Eudo Road, Colchester.
While cutting back in some areas, it is investing £1.2million on Leisure World, in Cowdray Avenue, Colchester, in an attempt to increase the centre’s profits, long-term.
Between them, the Highwoods centre, and Tiptree Leisure World, cost the council £250,000 a year to run.
Mr Coppin said: “The council is spending a lot of money at Leisure World, in Cowdray Avenue, but not spending anything up here at Highwoods to promote it. It means people are not coming up here. I can understand it has lost money, but I feel if a bit more promotion work was done on it, numbers would increase.
“I’m sure a lot of people don’t even know this place exists.”
A council spokesman said: “We are having to look at ways to save money, but we but still want to encourage as many local residents as possible to lead healthy and active lifestyles.
“To reduce the loss Highwoods makes, the  council will not be staffing the centre during the day in the future.
“This means the gym will not be available during the day, which will affect about ten regular customers.
“Our challenge now is to make all Leisure World venues as busy as possible, through appropriate marketing and promotions, based on the facilities at each site.”
l A campaigning mum has met Colchester MP Sir Bob Russell to raise concerns over plans to cut gymnastics classes.
Parents whose children have classes at Colchester Leisure World were told a fortnight ago they could be axed.
The council gave instructors  30 days to prove the three classes were viable.
Kelly Birchmore, whose  nine-year-old daughter, Charlie, goes to the weekly classes, she has started a petition, against the cuts and said MP Sir Bob Russell had agreed to take up the case.
The council is reviewing gym classes as part of the plan to make its leisure services more profitable.