More than 100 gym users have signed a petition amid claims classes and instructors have been axed at Strood Leisure Centre.

Members are threatening to quit because they say fitness classes have been cancelled and popular instructors have been replaced by inexperienced staff, despite a £1.9m facelift at the centre.

But Medway Council has denied cuts to the number of classes and said freelance instructors have been replaced by fully qualified staff.

Martin Davies started a petition online which has gained 132 signatures.

He said: “The majority of Strood sports centre cost-cutting has fallen on the sports centre fitness classes. The number of professional class instructors has more than halved in the last six months.

“The centre has terminated the contracts of dedicated, professional and motivated instructors. This has led to a reduction in the number and variety of classes.

Another member Karolina Throssell said: “Medway has been going back on its promised sporting legacy by cancelling a number of fitness classes or replacing very qualified instructors with new staff who have been given little training.

“The end result? A large number of unhappy members who plan to cancel their gym memberships and potentially worse, an accident waiting to happen should an unqualified instructor be put in charge of a class where a member could injure themselves if not doing an exercise properly.”

"There has been no reduction in the number of fitness classes on offer" - sports head Bob Dimond

Among those who have signed the petition is Rob Martin from Rochester who claims he suffered a knee injury during a bootcamp class run by an inexperienced instructor.

Bob Dimond, head of sport, leisure and tourism at Medway Council, said: “Since the £1.9million refurbishment at Strood Sports Centre, the programme of classes at the centre has been refreshed, but there has been no reduction in the number of fitness classes on offer.

“Over the past year we have taken the opportunity to undergo an extensive training programme, which means we now have qualified staff who can deliver a large proportion of the classes. This does mean we have let some of our freelance instructors go and we do understand that some classgoers had grown fond of them.

“The instructors now in place are employees of the centre, they are fully qualified and look forward to getting to know members and helping them to reach their fitness goals – especially those who enjoy the group fitness classes they will be teaching.”

He added the council would consider putting on more classes if there was sufficient demand.