A health club feeling the pinch in the energy crisis has resorted to switching off its hot tubs to save cash.
But members of the gym who pay £63 a month have lashed out at the decision and claimed it was ridiculous.
Nuffield Health, which has hot tubs at 72 of its 114 fitness and wellbeing centres across the UK, wrote to members to say that the bubbles will stop running from this week.
The note explained that the facilities will not be turned back on until the spring, reports My London.
One customer was left fuming about the closure, claiming his local centre in Derby welcomes a hundred customers per day.
The 51-year-old said: "I was not happy when I got the email. The [hot tub] isn't working anyway.
Image:
Derby Telegraph)"The bubbles aren't on so it's basically a bath, so to be told it's being closed indefinitely is ridiculous.
"For quite a few months last year, they shut it down due to a leak so when this happened, I was thinking 'what, again?'.
"They say it's due to the energy crisis but I don't understand.
"I pay £49 a month, some people pay more. There are a lot of people that go there during the week, I'd say around 100 people or more a day.
"It's not down to the manager who runs it, it's the head office that makes these decisions.
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"I was on the phone to head office regarding the [hot tub] before and they had no idea that it was broken."
Nuffield Health said while it "really values its members", it will immediately cancel memberships for those who wish to leave due to the hot tub closures, offering refunds on a case-by-case basis.
In its letter to customers, the company said: “This is to ensure we can conserve energy and allows us to keep our swimming pool, sauna and steam room open and we know that our members highly value and benefit from these facilities.”
The note said Nuffield gyms used a "significant amount of energy" and had been faced with "considerable" rising energy costs.
Pool operators in Europe have faced similar pressures to those in the UK.
This month it emerged that dozens of public pools in France had been closed because they were too expensive to keep open.
A spokesperson for Nuffield Health told Mirror Online: "Our gyms use a significant amount of energy and, to meet rising costs, we’ve made the decision to temporarily close our spa pools [hot tubs] for the autumn and winter months as they are energy intensive.
"This will allow us to keep our swimming pools, steam rooms and saunas open as we know our member value and benefit from these services.
"Alongside reducing costs, we also have ambitious carbon net zero targets, and we are working hard to be more energy efficient in the long-term by investing in initiatives that will reduce our consumption."
