Sport and leisure – future plans

We have set money aside to help keep aging Eastney Swimming Pool and Wimbledon Park sports centre as they currently are. Last year we asked for your views on whether this money can be spent on a brand new facility at Bransbury Park instead. As the majority of residents (63%) supported this idea, we recently gave the go ahead to develop plans further. View Nov/Dec 2020 consultation results

We have committed £10.5m towards the project. We will bid to Sport England for up to £2m more in grant funding to maximise the number of facilities on the site. We will be including the existing Eastney Community Centre into the building to provide a modern flexible ecologically sound community facility.

This will not involve the loss on any of the existing grassed areas and we know our plans will need to address concerns over parking. The proposals will go through the statutory planning process at a later stage but we want to involve residents in this project from the very beginning.

We will also be talking to groups and organisations who use Eastney Community Centre, Eastney Swimming Pool and Wimbledon Park Sports Centre to help decide the right mix of facilities. No decisions have been made on the futures of Eastney Swimming Pool or Wimbledon Park Sport Centre.

Further public consultation will take place for both sites.

We have agreed plans for a £2.5m redevelopment of the Pyramids Centre. It will include an impressive new adventure play and trampoline facility and a major expansion of the already-successful gym.

The plans have been met with some disappointment, but keeping the Pyramids leisure pool is not an option. To fully refurbish it and re-open as a leisure pool would cost around £13m over the next 10 years. We do not have the money to do this. In addition, the Pyramids building was originally designed to last 30 years and is now 30 years old and cannot go on indefinitely. The only options left were to close the centre or find a way to keep it open before the building inevitably reaches the end of its life.

The new plans will encourage more residents and visitors of all ages to use the Pyramids to get active and have fun, and help to secure its future for a few more years before we consult on what will eventually replace it, as explained in the Seafront Masterplan.

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