Customers at a leisure centre will not be allowed to wear shoes at its pool facilities in a bid to help the environment.

William Penn Leisure Centre in Rickmansworth introduced a No Shoes Policy in all pool changing rooms and poolside to reduce single-use plastic across its facilities.

The policy, which was rolled out on October 1 following a trial period, is set to eliminate approximately 6,000 plastic overshoes per month which are currently used to cover outdoor footwear around the pool changing rooms and poolside areas.

Under the new No Shoes Policy, customers will be encouraged to remove their shoes or change into indoor footwear that has not been worn outside such as flip flops.

Everyone Active, who manages the William Penn Leisure Centre in partnership with Three Rivers District Council, said they were looking forward to go green with the new No Shoes policy.

John Sewell, Area Contract Manager at Everyone Active, said: “We all need to play our part in tackling the global battle on single-use plastic, so we are proud to take a step in the right direction with the new policy and hope our local community support us in reducing our environmental impact.

“During the pilot of the policy in September we have also seen an impressive improvement in the cleanliness of the poolside areas which means we can reduce the chemicals we use to keep them clean.

“We are looking forward to having greener, cleaner leisure centres for everyone to enjoy staying active.”

Three Rivers councillor Chris Lloyd, lead member for leisure, said: “As part of the Council’s commitment to reduce single use plastics in our District, we are pleased to see that Everyone Active have been trailing the removal of the blue overshoes.

“We welcome the introduction of this on a permanent basis and hope that the community will continue to support this change. I must remember my flip flops when I swim there in October.”