Lee Valley White Water Centre rated ‘outstanding’ by leading quality scheme

Lee Valley White Water Centre has been recognised as an ‘outstanding’ venue in a tough, new two-day assessment by Sport England’s continuous improvement tool for leisure facilities, Quest.

Quest was first established more than 20 years ago to measure how well a facility is operating and how effective organisations are across a range of topics. The renowned award has evolved over the years to keep pace with the ever changing sport and leisure industry, and is still the sector’s best-known improvement programme, with its rigorous assessments challenging even the very best leisure centres in the UK.

Lee Valley White Water Centre, managed by GLL, a charitable social enterprise and worker-owned cooperative, operating under the community-brand, Better, underwent the Quest Plus assessment; a two-day evaluation including a number of compulsory modules on day one, including Tackling Inequalities and Environmental Management, as well as a variety of topics to help the facility make progress in specific areas of its business on day two. The venue also went through a mystery visit. By achieving an overall rating of excellent in both Quest Plus and its Mystery Visit, the former Olympic Games venue has been awarded the accolade of Quest Outstanding.

Jon Lea, General Manager at Lee Valley White Water Centre, said: “We’re delighted and immensely proud of the entire Lee Valley White Water Centre team for this exceptional achievement. Their unwavering dedication and tireless efforts in preparing for the assessment have paid off, and we are elated to have earned the coveted ‘Outstanding’ rating.”

Shaun Dawson, Chief Executive at Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, said: “We are thrilled with the results of this latest Quest assessment. The ‘outstanding’ rating reaffirms Lee Valley White Water Centre’s position as a world class venue, and we extend our gratitude to our team and partners for their relentless efforts in maintaining the highest standards of customer service and safety.”

Quest’s operations director, Caroline Constantine, said: “Quest Plus is such a demanding process. By meeting Quest’s high standards for ‘excellent’ centres and achieving an overall accolade of ‘outstanding’, Lee Valley White Water Centre has shown its commitment to providing quality facilities and service to its customers.

“In these tough economic times it is more important than ever that local leisure facilities can demonstrate their value, and the Quest process helps them do just that; enabling facilities and their teams to have the quality of their work both recognised and nationally accredited, as well as showing how they measure up against national standards.”

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For further information contact:
Jacob Ranson
Tel: 07809331774
Email: Jacob.ranson@gll.org

Editor’s notes:
Lee Valley White Water Centre
Notes to Editors
Lee Valley White Water Centre is part of Lee Valley Regional Park, which stretches 26 miles along the River Lee from East India Dock Basin on the Thames to Ware in Hertfordshire. The park offers a range of great activities, days out and attractions from cycling, white water sports and angling to horse riding, ice skating, hockey and camping, alongside award winning nature reserves, green spaces, heritage sites and riverside trails.
·    Located at the edge of the hugely popular 1000-acre River Lee Country Park, Lee Valley White Water Centre – near Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire – is a world leading destination offering a host of exciting sport and leisure activities including white water rafting, canoeing, kayaking, hydrospeeding (similar to body boarding) and inflatable obstacle courses.
·    The London 2012 venue has two white water courses – the 300m Olympic Standard Competition Course with a 5.5m descent and the 160m Legacy Loop with a 1.6m descent, perfect for training and developing the next generation of champions – and a lake the size of two football pitches.
·    Lee Valley White Water Centre hosted the London 2012 Canoe Slalom event in which Team GB won gold and silver medals, as well as the 2014 ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup where GB won seven gold and one silver medal. The 2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships were held here, bringing the Championships back to British waters for the first time in 20 years. GB athletes excelled with one gold, one silver and two bronze medals. The venue also staged the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup 2019 and will host to the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships 2023.
·    British Canoeing’s High Performance Centre is located at the venue and is the base for the British Canoe Slalom squad and all UK Sport funded slalom Podium athletes. Lee Valley White Water Centre is the first London 2012 legacy venue to gain this High Performance Centre status.
·    Lee Valley White Water Centre is perfect for corporate and group hire, staff away days, entertaining clients, stag and hen dos and celebrating special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries, as well as offering a stunning backdrop for filming and photography location hire.
·    Waltham Cross is the nearest station, with direct trains to London Liverpool. The venue is ten minutes from junctions 25 and 26 of the M25.
·    Lee Valley White Water Centre is owned by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.
https://www.better.org.uk/leisure-centre/lee-valley/white-water-centre
Lee Valley White Water Centre, Station Road, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire EN9 1AB
Tel: 03000 030 616
Social Media
·        Facebook: @LeeValleyWWC
·       Twitter: @LeeValleyWWC
·       Instagram: @leevalleywwc

Quest is Sport England’s UK quality scheme for sport and leisure. It is a tool for continuous improvement, designed primarily for the management of leisure facilities and leisure development. Quest defines industry standards and good practice, and encourages their ongoing development and delivery within a customer-focused management framework. For more information, visit https://questaward.org/