The future of a Wokingham leisure centre will be considered at a meeting next week – with councillors set to consider closure as an option, despite a consultation showing people wanted the site to stay open.
Wokingham Borough Council’s Community and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting next Tuesday will be asked to discuss transferring St Crispin’s Leisure Centre to St Crispin’s School (The Circle Trust).
This, is says, it to deal with an urgent need for additional school places.
Earlier this year, a public consultation took place focusing on the future of the leisure centre that looked at all options for the future of the site.
It noted how the use of the facility has continued to reduce following the Covid-19 pandemic and the opening of new leisure facilities in Wokingham.
The report to the committee noted: “There is significant pressure on secondary school places and as mentioned below there is an opportunity to expand St Crispin’s School which if not taken, it is likely that there will be a shortfall in places in September 2024.”
The report notes that school place sufficiency forecasting for Wokingham indicates that the Borough has a total shortage of 1,045 Year 7 places at secondary schools in the next five academic years.
“Transfer of the site was included in the consultation, and although retention of the site for the Leisure Centre was the most popular outcome of the consultation, it should be noted that consultations are carried out in order to assist with decision-making, and, while they should be given consideration, they are only one factor that needs to be taken into account when a decision is made.”
It added the existing leisure centre can be repurposed for dedicated school provision through small scale of work schemes, which would need to be specified and delivered by the Trust after the handover.
“Subject to the Executive approval of the recommended option, the Council is proposing a funding of £1 million to the Trust to enable them to enable the Trust to make any necessary adaption for extra school places until 2029.”
St Crispin’s Leisure Centre is currently operated by Places Leisure under contract to Wokingham Borough Council.
The council says the centre has seen a 26% reduction in footfall since re-opening post pandemic, with particularly reduction in footfall in the over-60s demographic.
The new Wokingham Leisure Centre at the Carnival Hub opened in July 2022, also operated by Places Leisure, has continued to draw customers away from St Crispin’s.
Prior to Covid, the majority of members were St Crispin’s site only members (63.9%) and used this site exclusively, the multi-site usage was considerably lower and the main reason for upgrade to multi-site was to use the swimming pool at the old Carnival.
Since the opening of the new Carnival Hub, Wokingham Borough Council said have seen the multi-site option being taken up by the majority of current and new St Crispin’s members (70.92%). Their usage of Carnival Hub is for all facilities including swimming, gym, classes and badminton.
Data indicates nearly 40% of St Crispin’s members exclusively use Carnival Hub.
The consultation saw a series of public meetings were held, and an on-line facility to comment was also provided to encourage greater resident participation. A total of 940 responses were received.
“As would be expected in a consultation of this nature, most respondents did not support closure of the centre with main issues being loss of facilities (in particular squash courts) and support for the current location of the centre.
“Among the options for potential alternative use of the asset, transfer to the Circle Trust was the most supported, and disposal for residential development or mothballing receiving little or no support.”
Next week’s meeting will scrutinise the report and make recommendations, as appropriate, that will be reported to the Executive at its meeting on November 30.
