Peak Capacity of ActiveSG Gyms and Considerations for Building New Ones
Ministry of Culture, Community and YouthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the capacity and expansion of ActiveSG gyms, with Member of Parliament Mr Fadli Fawzi inquiring about crowdedness and planning considerations for new facilities. Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Ms Goh Hanyan explained that peak capacity is determined by balancing accessibility, user space, and fire safety requirements. She noted that gyms like Senja-Cashew and Clementi see high visitorship and explained that facilities are generally expanded during the renovation or comprehensive redevelopment of sport centres. For planning, she stated that the current parameter provides a town sports centre with a gym for urban areas with populations exceeding 130,000 residents. Finally, she mentioned that the government is reviewing alternative facility formats under the Sports Facilities Master Plan and will continue to monitor demand to guide supply.
Transcript
23 Mr Fadli Fawzi asked the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) how the peak capacity of each ActiveSG gym is determined; (b) which are the most crowded ActiveSG gyms; (c) whether there are plans to increase the supply of gym facilities where demand is high; and (d) if not, why not.
The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (Ms Goh Hanyan) (for the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth): The peak capacity of each ActiveSG gym is set with a view to maximise access to the gym facilities while ensuring that each user has sufficient space and time to exercise and that the prevailing fire safety requirements are complied with. This will be reviewed from time to time.
Our ActiveSG gyms are generally well-utilised, with larger gyms seeing higher visitorship. Some examples of gyms that experience higher visitorship relative to their size include Senja-Cashew ActiveSG gym and Clementi ActiveSG gym.
We plan that every residential town has at least one gym, which is situated in the town's ActiveSG Sport Centre. In general, towns with larger populations have more sport facilities, including more or larger gyms. Existing ActiveSG gyms within our sport centres may be expanded when the centres undergo renovation or comprehensive redevelopment. We will continue to monitor demand when planning the supply of gym facilities.
Mr Speaker: Mr Fadli Fawzi.
Mr Fadli Fawzi (Aljunied): Thank you for the replies. I have two supplementary questions. What are the considerations taken before the construction of an ActiveSG gym is decided on? And the second one is, would the Government consider establishing ActiveSG gyms in other locations, such as shopping malls and community or community centres?
Ms Goh Hanyan: I thank the Member for his questions. First, on the considerations before building an ActiveSG gym, for the Urban Redevelopment Authority's planning areas that have populations above 130,000, there will be a town sports centre with a gym. So, this is the planning parameter.
And in terms of the second question on other locations that we might consider for such gym facilities, we will continue to review different formats as part of our Sports Facilities Master Plan. For now, the planning parameter stays as what we will go by for our planning considerations.