Freedom Leisure held a birthday party on 1 April at its flagship facility, Hailsham Leisure Centre, to celebrate the sports trust’s fifth anniversary this month.

Freedom Leisure was formed in April 2002 and initially managed just four leisure centres – at Crowborough, Hailsham, Heathfield and Uckfield. The not-for-profit trust now maintains 14 leisure and fitness centres across both East and West Sussex.

The Trust employs 700 full and part-time staff locally and works closely with Wealden District Council, East Sussex County Council, Rother District Council, Hastings Borough Council, West Sussex County Council and the Primary Care Trust’s in the region to promote a healthy lifestyle and participation in regular exercise.

Freedom Leisure has invested £5m in improving facilities across its sites and has achieved a significant rise in visitor numbers from 500,000 per annum in 2002 to more than two million anticipated this year. Freedom leisure has also seen a 25% growth in Premier membership numbers.

Hailsham Leisure Centre, which boasts eight lanes of 10-pin bowling, a junior gym and soft play centre, benefited from a £1m transformation in 2006.

Jeff Hart, managing director of Freedom Leisure, said: “This is a truly remarkable success story and I am delighted to be able to congratulate everybody at Freedom Leisure for their continued hard work and determination to drive the business forward from every level within the organisation In such a short space of time we have carved out a considerable local, regional and national reputation for our operation and innovation.”

Cllr David Logan, Wealden District Council’s Cabinet member for Finance, added: “In 2001 Wealden District Council decided to create a Not-for-Profit Charitable Trust (Freedom Leisure) to manage the Council’s four leisure centres.

“Since then we have seen a real reduction in the amount of Council Taxpayers' money spent on these facilities, together with a huge increase in capital investment in the provision of sports and leisure activities on offer.

“Freedom Leisure has built on this success and has been able to expand its services into other districts to become the largest leisure provider in the county. We congratulate Freedom Leisure on its record of success during these first five years which have been a win win result for the people of Wealden.”

Photograph: Cutting the fifth birthday cake are: (l-r) Karen Burrell, head of marketing; Naomi Bonetti, head of HR; Graham Freeborn, operations director; David Talbut, head of finance; Charles Lant, chief executive of Wealden District Council; and Jeff Hart, Freedom Leisure’s managing director