Ipswich mayor Sarah Barber showed that she has a real spring in her step when she paid a visit to the newest place to jump around in the town.
She kicked off her shoes and tried out the facilities at the Bounce Centre on the Anglia Retail Park, in Bury Road yesterday.
And not wishing to be left behind, I felt I had to try the new centre as well before the paying public arrived for the day.
The Bounce Centre has been created in part of the former B&Q store – and it has been open about seven weeks. Later this month it will be joined by the Billy Beez children’s play centre next door to become a major leisure centre for all ages.
Bounce has many trampolines linked together to allow people to bounce in tandem.
There are also foam pits, an air cushion, trampoline basketball hoops, a foam jousting pole, and an area to play trampoline dodgeball.
The centre is the third in Britain run by Bounce – joining centres in Milton Keynes and Peterborough. They all employ between 42 and 45 members of staff. Billy Beez is an American-based children’s play centre which Bounce is introducing to the UK.
Company managing director Gary Knill was delighted to see Bounce in Ipswich up and running and is looking forward to it becoming a popular centre for the whole area.
He said: “We first said we wanted to come to Ipswich a year ago and here it is. I’m delighted that it has all come together like this.
“We looked long and hard, at the population in the area and what the demand might be and we felt this site was ideal – we wanted to help regenerate a retail park rather than move into one that was already established.”
Mrs Barber enjoyed her visit – although after an initial photocall had to take off the mayoral chain before starting to bounce.
She said: “This will be very popular with families, it is really good to see what has happened here (at the retail park) over the last year – and this is great fun.”
Before anyone takes part in the bouncing there is a full safety drill – and there are a team of “bouncers” on patrol to ensure no one does anything dangerous.
This includes a “three-strikes” rule where people can be given two warnings if they are bouncing dangerously before they can be asked to leave the centre with a red card.
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