Leisure centre users will have to book ahead and observe strict guidelines, including watching a short film, when swimming pools and gyms open from next week.

Felixstowe Leisure Centre will re-open on Monday August 3 at 7am for gym and fitness classes, while Brackenbury Sports Centre will re-open a fortnight later, on Monday August 17 at 10am.

Lane swimming will resume at Felixstowe centre on August 10 with swimming lessons starting again in September.

Customer returning to the centres will see additional safety measures and cleaning regimes in place, as well as social distancing measures.

This includes new hand sanitiser stations and cleaning stations to wipe down equipment before and after use, new floor and wall signage throughout and repositioned equipment to enable social distancing.

All activities will be operated in sessions which must be pre-booked via the Places Locker App or Places Leisure website. Gym sessions will last 60 minutes and swim sessions, where applicable, 45 minutes.

There will be a changeover period between all sessions to allow people to exit their session safety and for staff to clean the facilities before the next session.

All fitness classes will be running on a changed timetable with reduced class sizes to enable social distancing.

As part of ensuring a safe re-opening, Places Leisure has prepared a comprehensive guide to frequently asked questions as well as a short film to introduce the new measures in place to help people prepare for their return.

Jeremy Boreham, Area Manager for Places for People Leisure, said: "We are really pleased with the Government's decision to allow indoor gyms and leisure facilities to re-open – meaning it won't be long before we welcome customers back to our gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools.

"Since we closed our facilities on Government instruction in March, the team has been taking advice from Public Health England, following Government guidelines, and consulting with our trade body ukactive to ensure that we can reopen as soon as possible.

"Now, as we prepare to do that, we are implementing lots of new measures to keep colleagues and customers safe. Changes will include lots of signage to ensure we all respect social distancing, reduced activity capacities, enhanced cleaning regimes, and hand sanitizing and cleaning stations. We'll also ask customers to pre-book sessions on our Places Locker app or via our website.

In a joint statement, Cllr Letitia Smith, Cabinet Member for Leisure and Cllr Stephen Burroughes, Cabinet Member for Operational Partnerships, said: "We know that many people have missed it and are keen to get back to their fitness regimes, so it is great news that we are now able to confirm the re-opening of our leisure centres run by Places Leisure.

"Of course, things will be a little different when our leisure centres re-open, but we want to reassure people that that the safety of customers and staff is our first priority and every step has been taken to ensure we can re-open as safely as possible.

"We hope that customers will enjoy the leisure facilities but also act responsibly so that both other customers and staff can have a safe and positive experience."