SIR, I’d like to respond to Liz Johnson’s letter of December 19, 2014 in which she conveys a number of concerns relating to the standards, equipment and her experience of the leisure club at Peebles Hydro.

I fully accept that change and improvement of the leisure club facilities are long overdue and would like to reassure Ms Johnson and all our leisure club members that investment is earmarked for the leisure club and that significant improvements will be seen over the coming months.

An investment figure of around £5m has been committed to developing Peebles Hydro over the next five years, the first phase of which will be carried out in the next few months.

As part of this first phase, we’ll be installing a range of brand new gym equipment and refurbishing the gym area. The poolside flooring will be replaced and we’ll be creating a new leisure club reception area with a separate seating/refreshment area. This is the first part of a staged plan for improvement within the leisure club, the hotel and the hotel grounds.

Our first public consultation event held in October was a huge success and we plan to follow this up with a similar event in the new year. We’re really pleased that there is so much interest in the hotel and its facilities and that so many of our guests and leisure club members share our passion for improvement and for putting Peebles Hydro back on the map, locally and nationally.

We shared a little bit of our vision for the hotel at our first event in the autumn and we look forward to hopefully welcoming Ms Johnson and other members of the local and wider community to our next event in the new year.

I am, etc, Patrick Diack General manager Peebles Hydro