Swindon sports facilities ‘lack’ raised by councillors
Concerns over sports halls, swimming provision and the future maintenance of leisure facilities discussed at council committee
Concerns about a “lack” of sporting facilities in Swindon have been raised by the public and councillors.
The matter was discussed at the Heritage, Culture and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Thursday, September 17.
Councillor Neil Hopkins raised the matter in relation to a lack of sports halls across the town, which he said was highlighted in a recent report by Wiltshire and Swindon Sport.
“The report actually stated that there is a lack of large sports halls in Swindon.
“To some extent, that may have been contributed to by the loss of the large hall at the Oasis.
“But increasingly what happens in developments such as the Eastern villages is that most of the parcels that are agreed through planning constitute 300-500 homes.
“So there’s never enough capacity there to say – now we need a sports hall/centre, or we need some major provision.
“So I think that is quite an important issue strategically for Swindon, because if we don’t have the sports halls, we are not going to get a fitter population, and we are not going to ultimately as a country reduce the impact in terms of future health.
“There is an issue there, and it needs to be picked up in terms of planning, and our Local Plan.”
A member of the public raised concerns about the lack of swimming provision in Swindon.
“I think there is an urgency around swimming provision, in terms of identifying what we are going to do about it,” said Cllr Hopkins.
“There are lots of innovative approaches, and I think that is something that very much should be in the remit of this committee.”
He also stated that when the council has leased out facilities such as sports facilities or community, there is an “inadequate expectation” in terms of future maintenance of the building.
“If we are not careful, what we will end up doing, is finding that in 10/15 years time, these buildings have not been maintained properly.
“They come back to the council and there is a significant cost, so we end up having to knock them down and start again.
“It is important that we make sure there is an expectation in terms of our sports facilities and community centres that they are maintained in a suitable way and we understand what level of maintenance backlog exists.”
Councillor Matthew Vallender, SBC’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Planning and Regeneration, said the council recently did a sports facilities needs assessment as part of the Local Plan’s evidence base.
“That has looked at future leisure planning within Swindon. It also touched on the swimming deficit and work around that.
“I am happy to look at that. The one caveat I would say is that we don’t have an internal sports and leisure team in SBC anymore, so there is limited capacity in terms of what we can discuss there.”
He said it could be discussed more from a planning perspective.
Cllr Vallender said he will be meeting Greenwich Leisure Limited next Thursday, who run all of Swindon’s leisure facilities and suggested further meetings with them.