Aquaterra is thrilled to announce that five of the Islington leisure centres it manages, in partnership with Islington Council, have achieved the prestigious Quest Plus award and have been rated as 'excellent' or 'good'. Quest is Sport England's leading national quality scheme.

 Five leisure centres were assessed against the Quest Plus upgrade criteria in late July 2013 with Islington Tennis Centre rated as 'excellent' and Archway Leisure Centre, Cally Pool, Highbury Pool and Fitness Centre and Sobell Leisure Centre all rated as 'good'.

 Only 5% of centres nationwide have achieved this 'Excellent' status overall, from over 600 centres that have been assessed. This is the highest level of attainment for the Quest Plus award and Islington Tennis Centre has joined that prestigious group.

 In order to achieve this upgrade to Quest Plus, the leisure centres were each assessed against a further four modules, with the "Contribution to Health and Wellbeing" module scoring excellent right across the board.

 Quest is the most well known improvement programme within the leisure industry and its rigorous assessments challenge even the very best leisure centres in the UK.

 Antony Kildare, Chief Executive of Aquaterra said: "I'm extremely proud and delighted by this fantastic achievement, which was a real team effort. Quest is much more than a tick box exercise; it is an ongoing programme to improve our facilities for both staff and customers, and a great way to demonstrate our achievements and the value of our motivated, skilled and customer-focused workforce."

All Aquaterra leisure centres have now been awarded Quest or Quest Plus, including Finsbury Leisure Centre and the four leisure centres managed in partnership with Bath and North East Somerset Council, which were assessed between March and April 2012: Bath Sports and Leisure Centre, South Wansdyke Sports Centre, Keynsham Leisure Centre and Culverhay Sports Centre.

 Quest's operations director, Caroline Constantine, said: "Quest Plus is a step up from the entry level Quest and as such it is a more demanding process. By meeting Quest's high standards Aquaterra has shown its commitment to providing quality facilities and service to its customers. In these tough economic times it is more important than ever that local leisure facilities can demonstrate their value, and the Quest process helps them do just that."

 Olympic Gold and Silver medallist Darren Campbell, one of Britain's most successful and well-known male sprinters, is also the first Quest Ambassador. He said: "I would like to congratulate Aquaterra on achieving Quest. I strongly believe that the whole community should have accessible, affordable and high quality sport and leisure facilities on their doorstep. In working hard to continuously improve their offering, Aquaterra is doing its bit to encourage and inspire people to get more active."