At the Full Council meeting of 27 February 2025, it was agreed to proceed with budget savings totalling just under £14m. Included within this was the proposal by Live Life Aberdeenshire to increase to direct debit memberships by 25%. Whilst comparatively high, this price increase represents an average increase of around £5 per month, which is less than the cost of one activity per month. This is before any age or income related discounts are applied: View the full Council budget papers
The service operates in commercially minded, yet community focused way, and we recognise the need to continue to invest in our assets to continually improve them. In the last year, over £1.1m has been spent delivering customer facing improvements. These include gym refreshes at Fraserburgh, Deveron, and Aboyne Sport and Community Centres, surface improvements to 5-a-side pitches at Inverbervie and Turriff, all weather sport pitch lighting upgrades, and community-based projects and initiatives. This is in addition to the upgraded £1.8m Stonehaven Leisure Centre, which opened in July 2024 following a yearlong renovation, and the new changing pavilion currently being built in Turriff.
Our new pricing still remains budget range when compared with the wider health and fitness market, at £25 for a gym membership. We encourage all members to have the right membership for them, and use their membership to the full, both to realise excellent value for money but to also reduce our cost per visit and ultimately help our leisure centres become more sustainable. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and look forward to bringing more improvements in 2025/26.
Customers with a Live Life Aberdeenshire Membership will receive notification of their new membership price via email by the 15th March.