The ongoing frustrating delays to the return of the Oasis continue, with the Swindon Advertiser covering concerns that the Labour Council were considering allowing a significant downgrade of the proposed pool facilities, including removing the need for a wave machine. Thankfully, Councillors and the Save Oasis campaign group made strong representations to the Council.
I have quite a bit of knowledge in this area. Having been responsible for leisure on SBC in the 00’s, my former business (prior to being an MP) supplied the leisure industry and I have served as the APPG Chair for Sport & Leisure in Parliament, working with organisations like the Sport & Recreation Alliance and Sport England. I am also a parent, so you quickly see what is and isn’t popular!
I met with Heritage England this week, who granted the listed status for the Oasis dome. I didn’t support the listing of the Dome. To me, there would always be a finite budget for redevelopment and the priority should be in the actual leisure offering – key to being financially sustainable. During my time as the Lead Member for Leisure in the 00’s (part of why I have such a soft spot for the Oasis) all our customer surveys etc showed that the roof was unpopular with residents - the sunburn wrongly created the impression the Oasis was unclean. Obviously, I didn’t win that argument!
I pressed Heritage England as to what they could and should be doing post decision. It can’t just be the case that they make a decision (rightly or wrongly) and then just walk away, satisfied with a derelict building. They claim they can continue to offer SBC expertise.
Traditional swimming pools lose money – however, leisure pools can be sustainable with the right offering with good secondary spend. Therefore, it was right to press on the wave machine.
Even the most popular leisure pools have an issue that demand will often exceed capacity during school holidays, which is lost income. Either you accept the missed business or have alternative offerings that people will also be happy to book / use.
Sports halls lose money, which is why so many operators are dropping them. Locally, the Link Centre switched to trampolining and soft play. In the past this was part covered by being multi-use as a music venue. However (sadly) the world has changed and there are fewer acts available now that require that size venue. This is why so many festivals and music venues have sadly ended. In Swindon we already have the Wyvern and MECA.
There are grants available for sports halls, but in my opinion, this would be better used at The Link - adding a sports hall to the back, either updating the old football pitches, or on the disused car-park. Ideally you should have one leisure centre (Oasis) and one sports centre (The Link).
At the Oasis, I would build an outdoor adventure playground. This as an attraction would be strong enough to generate income, with relatively low costs (staff and maintenance) and would allow peak (school holidays) capacity to be significantly increased. People could book tickets for either the swimming or adventure playground, or both.
I hope the Council push hard to get the Oasis re-opened. Every day it remains closed is another day the children of Swindon are missing out.
