Portsmouth City Council has unveiled site plans for a new leisure centre for Bransbury Park, to strengthen communities and to support greener, healthier, and happier living, and wants residents to have their say on the plans.
The new leisure centre will bring sports and swimming facilities together in a modern, ecologically-sound hub at Bransbury Park. The council is also working with the NHS to investigate the possibility to provide a new GP surgery as part of the development.
In March 2022, in a survey about the planned leisure centre, 94% of respondents said they would be ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to use the new leisure centre.
The council has launched another survey for residents to have their say on the plans before they move to the planning permission stage. The survey https://www.research.net/r/BransburyParkWeb is open until midnight on 26 March.
There are two site plan proposals (one with a GP surgery and one without) and include artists impressions, to provide a sense of size and scale, and to show options for materials, however, the final landscaping, the finishes and layout will be issued with the planning application later in the year.
The plans don’t involve losing any of the existing grass areas, with exception to a small amount that would have ‘Grasscrete’ to create a stable environment for parking, to increase the size of the car park, to ensure there is enough parking.
Cllr Steve Pitt, Portsmouth City Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure & Economic Development, said: “I’m pleased that we now have plans that we can share with the community and are providing an opportunity for residents to have their say on them, before we go to planning.
“Hopefully, residents will see that we’ve listened to their concerns around losing green space and facilities, and around parking issues, because our site plans show an increase in the size of the car park and an extended three-hour parking zone, the retention of the grass pitches, the gardens, the miniature railway and free to use external courts, and will provide a sports and swimming facility for people to enjoy healthier and happier lives.”