South Gloucestershire Leisure has been highly commended for its management of Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre by the UK Quality Scheme for Sport and Leisure, Quest.

Taking place every two years, the assessment includes mystery telephone calls and visits, a full two-day audit of business practices, self-assessment with ongoing maintenance reviews.

Bradley Stoke has been a part of the Quest scheme since it started 12 years ago and its latest score of 82 per cent puts it at the top of the highly commended category - only 2 per cent away from the "excellent" rating.

South Gloucestershire Leisure (SGL) Operations Director Craig Smart said the Bradley Stoke team had made a "tremendous effort" by taking the centre from 75 per cent in the last audit to its current status.

Among the highest scoring areas and those which showed the most improvement were environmental management, cleanliness, housekeeping and presentation, customer feedback and marketing.

Mr Smart said: "We are incredibly proud of the achievement and increase in performance ratings.

"The areas in which we most improved really show the work that we have been doing around environmental issues and our major focus on cleanliness as well as the look and feel of the building.

"These and a new customer feedback system are all helping towards South Gloucestershire Leisure's continuous improvement programme - ultimately to ensure our customers are happy with the facilities we provide."

Quest is a tool for continuous improvement, designed primarily for the management of leisure facilities and leisure development. It defines industry standards and good practice and encourages their on-going development and delivery within a customer-focused management framework.

Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre follows the Facility Management (FM) model, which is aimed at the management of any facility that provides an activity for customers; public, private, trust and voluntary sector.

Dean Barney, Area Manager at Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre, said: "The team at Bradley Stoke have shown a real commitment to improving the service and facilities to our customers. Their efforts have been recognised through achieving this score from Quest."

Gill Twell, who heads up the mystery visitor programme for Quest and carried out the Bradley Stoke assessment, said: "The commitment of the manager and staff to the services provided by the Centre was evident to see.

"There were strong management processes in place for the planning, review and proactive monitoring and delivery of operational management issues and a positive ethos of the delivery of excellent Customer Care to enhance the customer experience."