After 2 years since being contacted by the City of Yarra in May 2008 about whether Fitstyler was conducting Boot camps on the war memorial in Barkley Gardens in Richmond we now have resolution.

In what started as a highly restrictive policy against fitness trainers in the City of Yarra has ended in a more amicable policy “Commercial Fitness Activity Personal Trainers Policy and Permit System” that balances the needs of the local community, park users, commercial fitness operators and the long term sustainability of open space infrastructure.

With the growing popularity of outdoor fitness training, we needed a policy that addresses not only the current but future usage of parks and gardens. More importantly it gives the public confidence in knowing that any fitness trainer undertaking exercise classes will need to have Public Liability Insurance of $10,000,000 and Public Indemnity of $5,000,000 together with appropriate qualifications.

A big thank you to the commercial fitness operators, Kinect Australia, The Age and the City of Yarra officers, in particular Mark Dornau, Greg Anders, Stuart Grant, Jenny O’Brien and Caitlin Ryan. Without their support and belief in the benefits of providing accessible exercise programs to the public, none of this would have been possible.

No doubt there will be similar challenges in the future with councils who have not formally addressed the regulation of their parks and gardens. I can only hope that the process, documentation and outcomes from the City of Yarra can form the foundations and direction for future councils to adopt.

Like I always like to say, persistence overrides resistance, whether it’s trying to lose weight to changing a proposed by-law:))

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 10:55 am by Andrew Talati and is filed under News.

Tags: boot camp, Fitness, Fitness training, Government Policy, Permit, Personal training policy, Social responsibility

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