In the depths of a recession one of the areas where people cut corners is leisure. Gym memberships have fallen rapidly as the current economic crisis has deepened — at least that might be the case in most of the country, but there is an exception in West Oxfordshire.

Witney Lakes Resort is a hive of industry with a leisure club, gym, conference centre and spa, as well as a golf course and restaurant.

But it could have been very different, had the original idea of just developing a golf course remained.

Back in 1992, managing director Gavin Brown was flushed with success from developing the Oxfordshire Golf Club in Thame, having originally approached the landowner, building it up to be one of the country’s top courses and then selling it on to a Japanese concern.

Together with civil engineer Steve Hill he wanted to repeat the formula, but it did not take long for him to realise that golf is not everyone’s idea of a good time on a cold, grey winter’s day.

Mr Brown said: “The thinking was that it was going to be golf and golf alone, but then we realised this would not really work in inclement weather.

“We knew we had to fill the car park seven days a week.”

The first step was to open a restaurant and they recruited top chef Sean Parker, who remains in place to this day, and gradually the rest of the facilities making up the resort fell into place.

“Golf is still important, but now it forms just part of the resort,” added Mr Brown.

In the spa, members can just as easily pick up a newspaper as a set of weights, or they can relax in the 17m swimming pool. After that they can enjoy one of a range of treatments, or have a haircut in Sue Rawle’s salon, which is run independently on site.

With no competition in the area from chains of fitness clubs such as David Lloyd Leisure, the spa can boast 1,700 members, who have an average age of 45 with 60 per cent of them women.

Recent members include Oxford United star Simon Clist, heptathlon and pentathlon star Lucy Boggis and her boyfriend Ant Sawyer, a former GB decathlete who is on the World Cup skeleton circuit aiming for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Mr Brown added that the location of Witney Lakes has also helped it buck the trend.

“West Oxfordshire is growing in population with the development of towns such as Carterton and Witney.”

Catering is a major operation with the restaurant employing eight full-time chefs led by Sean Parker. It seats 52 people, but the number of covers is swelled by the needs of the conferencing and function room clientele, which can range from the growing number of weddings to the West Oxfordshire Conservative Club, which boasts the Conservative Leader and Witney MP David Cameron among its ranks.

The kitchen team specialises in local produce such as milk from the Upper Norton dairy and Crudges cheese and ham. It bakes its own bread and cures its own beef.

On top of the leisure and restaurant offering, the resort also offers six conference rooms with the main one accommodating up to 250 delegates.

A particularly loyal client in the conference market is the NHS, as the facilities are not decadent and offer value-for-money during the current recession. Mr Brown is keen to encourage the relationship.

He said: “Conferencing has taken a big hit in the recession, so we are targeting the public sector where we feel there is sustainable business.”

The top management team at Witney Lakes has been boosted with the addition of Stuart Harrison, a specialist consultant in the hospitality industry, who runs the Profitable Hotel Company based in Witney.

Mr Harrison, a former journalist at the Witney Gazette and BBC Radio Oxford, has spent the majority of his career developing major hotel chains, including Malmaison.

A specialist in branding and marketing strategy, Mr Harrison has become a director along with finance specialist David Ransome.

Mr Harrison said: “In the last couple of years we have concentrated on the way the brand is presented as a single entity.

“Witney Lakes is not just a restaurant, business centre or golf course — the sum of all the parts is greater than the parts themselves.”

Another major part of Witney Lakes is the proposed addition of a Holiday Inn Express hotel which will cost £5m to develop.

The plan has been delayed, partly due to the recession and the reluctance of the banks to lend, but the intention is clearly to develop the site further, creating more jobs on top of the 100 people Witney Lakes employs already.

Clearly, the recession has not meant all work and no play for the hardworking residents of West Oxfordshire at least.