Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre has been awarded the prestigious Quest Award for management of the centre within the 'highly commended' category.

The centre was awarded a score of 83 per cent score and joins the top 6 per cent of leisure facilities in the UK. It is also the highest scoring in Suffolk. Quest is a quality assurance scheme, promoted by Sport England, specifically designed for managing sports and leisure facilities. It is an independently assessed scheme that reviews how effective and efficient an organisation is and provides guidance on how to continue to make improvements.

Following a 'mystery customer' visit, the Centre was assessed over a two day period in June 2010 by an independent external assessor; the facilities were inspected and members of staff from all levels of the organisation were interviewed. Now the Centre has achieved the award work will continue on achieving a higher standard during re assessments over the coming years.

Simon Ginders-Coxshall, General Manager of Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre, said: "I am extremely proud of this phenomenal first time achievement for the Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre and it is a great reward for all the hard work that my team put in to making this one of the foremost leisure centres in the county.

This further adds to the recognition of the services that we provide, following the outstanding 88per cent achieved in the Leisure Safe health and safety award earlier this year."

Warren Smyth, Chief Executive of Abbeycroft Leisure which runs the centre, said: "The Quest Award is a nationally-accredited, industry-wide endorsement of the standard to which a leisure centre is managed and run. The assessment, every two years, is demanding and covers all aspects of customer service, cleanliness and management."