Gym Of The Year: Wellness takes winner's title

The votes are in and we can announce the winner of Shields Gazette Gym Of The Year 2016.

Since January we have asked you to vote for who you thought should be given the coveted crown of the best gym in the area.

We wanted you to take into consideration what it was that you thought gave your gym the edge, what lifted it above its rivals and gave you what you wanted.

And you did.

Thanks to the strength of this year’s entrants we’ve had hundreds of votes registered for the gyms that featured in the top 10.

But in the end there could be only one winner – Wellness, at Harton Sports Centre, in St Mary’s Avenue.

In second place came No Lippy, in Prince Consort Road, Hebburn, and in third place came Total Fitness Tribe, in Commercial Road, South Shields.

The Gym of the Year was about much more than just finding the best-equipped facilities – we wanted to hear about the places that go the extra mile to give their customers special service, whether it be the luxury chains or the cheap and cheerful local venues where everybody knows your name – and our winner undoubtedly provides goes above and beyond the call of duty to provide service to remember.

Wellness Centre boss Ashley Pickup was overwhelmed at the win and thanked the team at the gym as well as the loyal customers whose votes made the win a reality.

“Myself and all of the staff at Harton Sports Centre are absolutely delighted to be voted Gym of the Year 2016.” he said.

“We try to offer the best service possible for our members and include a range of fitness classes, personal training, gym programmes and healthy eating advice with all of our memberships.

“Our Sports Centre, which is part of Harton Technology College, has been open for 10 years now.

“The facilities are used by both our students and members of the community, which has been a great success.

“We work extremely hard to offer a great ‘gym experience’ for our members and have some of the best fitness equipment in the area.

“It’s wonderful to receive something in return.

“We would like to thank everyone who has voted for us.”

We thank all the gyms that participated and hope they all enter again next year to see if they can win in 2017.