The Gym in Fallowfield still isn’t open but have charged students for membership

Despite The Gym Group's announcement last year that they would open a branch at the Toast Rack in Fallowfield, it still hasn't opened.

With an original opening date of Autumn 2017 and the super-low price of £10.99 to join, many students signed up as the proposed opening date coincided perfectly with the start of the academic year.

Yet, customers have been left out of pocket and with no gym, after The Gym Group have continued to push back the opening date, claiming that it is due to "circumstances beyond our control".

The 'Autumn 2017' opening date looked to be unlikely

Customers have allegedly been offered a number of different opening dates – some people were told October and others were told December. The latest opening date that The Gym Group proposed was January 2018, but they then claimed that contracting issues are causing further delays.

Despite the apparent contracting issues, The Gym Fallowfield have continued to advertise, including at the UoM Freshers Fair and on social media – even offering virtual tours of The Gym.

Some students have accused the organisation of using subscription money to fund the completion of the gym

However, the rooms were nowhere near finished and the front doors weren’t even installed until 13th December – way past the initial proposed opening date.

Chemistry third year, Chloe Jones, purchased a membership in March 2017 under the belief that it would open by the start of term. Since then she has only received two emails stating that "unforeseen circumstances" led to delays.

Although those that bought a membership aren't losing money every month, some students like Saul Fonseka, an Automotive Engineering first year, purchased the £49 deal for five months. He purchased the membership in September but was only informed in December that the opening date had been moved to January and that he would receive a text closer to the date. He has still not received a text.

Ciaras Wyatt, Aerospace Engineering fourth year told The Tab Manchester that "At this rate I'll have left Manchester before they open."

Despite all this, it appears The Gym Group are still continuing to accept payments for new memberships to a gym that hasn't even opened yet. The Tab Manchester was able to go through the process of signing up for a new membership, getting all the way to the payment details page.

The Gym told The Tab Manchester: "Unfortunately there have been several unforeseen delays with the building works being carried out by the landlord which mean we’ve had to push back our open date on multiple occasions due to circumstances beyond our control.

"We’re working hard to resolve the issues so that we can open the gym as soon as possible. We have no confirmed opening date yet, but we are keeping members updated as soon as we get more news.

"We can’t apologise enough for the ongoing delays and we’re so disappointed we haven’t been able to open yet. We know that some members have been waiting several months for the gym to open and appreciate how frustrating the situation is.

"We’re aware that members will be feeling let down, so we’ve offered the ability to transfer their 5 month student membership to our gym in the city centre, The Gym Manchester Portland Street. We’re also putting on a twice weekly bootcamp session located in Platt Fields Park as well as a running club which are both free of charge.

"We are doing all we can at our end and we just can’t wait to open our doors to all new members as soon as we possibly can."