£20m for Trowbridge water park (From This Is Wiltshire)

£20m for Trowbridge water park

1:00pm Friday 30th July 2010 in

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A £20 million water park and leisure complex is set to be built in the centre of Trowbridge.

Plans for the centre, which would include a leisure pool with a flume, eight-lane competition pool and a dual purpose learner/diving pool, were revealed on Tuesday as Wiltshire Council outlined its scheme to change the face of leisure in the county.

Cllr Stuart Wheeler, cabinet member for leisure, said: “With a £20m investment Trowbridge will have the biggest, most modern facility in Wiltshire. It will be genuinely exciting for Trowbridge and hopefully lead the way to bring other people into the town.”

The centre would also include a large sports hall, fitness suite, squash courts, multi-activity room and a climbing wall.

Wiltshire Council is also keen to bolt information kiosks onto the sports complex and create what it calls a community hub.

The diving and learner pool would have an adjustable floor level that can be lowered for divers and raised for learners.

The complex would be built in phase two of the leisure programme, in summer 2017, and would force the closure of the Trowbridge Sports Centre, on Frome Road, and the Castle Place leisure centre.

Cllr Wheeler said: “It will be good to have dual use of the diving and learner pool. The other advantage is that we can bring swimming and dry leisure facilities under one roof which not also saves money but encourages people to make a day of it because they don’t have to drive between two centres.

“My officers have been visiting other centres around the country to see how other councils operate and I will be visiting one in the north shortly. I want to learn from their successes and also from their mistakes.

“We have not yet worked out where in the town it would be located but it could well form part of the wider regeneration of Trowbridge. We have to be cautious about naming a location before we know the planning issues we will face.”

Speculation is rife that the centre would go on the council owned East Wing site, which at present houses the town’s library.

Trowbridge Grove councillor Jeff Osborne said: “It is the most likely location. At one time it was going to be used for commercial use but I’m pretty sure that it will be demolished to make way for the leisure facilities.

“I give it my blessing but I am going to keep a critical eye on it to make sure the tax payers get value for money.”

Pete Daniell, president of Trowbridge Amateur Swimming Club, said: “Anything that can help to improve access to swimming is a good thing. Without the learner pool at present it restricts things quite a bit. It would make a big difference to us. It is too restrictive to just have one pool.

“Trowbridge is very central for other clubs to access. I would have no objections to these plans whatsoever.”

Alice Clarke, who lives in Trowbridge with her children aged 10 and seven, said: “If they built this new centre it would save us having to drive to Chippenham and since we are the county town it is only right that we have these facilities.

“If we have three pools in the centre it will mean that people can use them for different purposes. At the same time I’m not sure I’d like to see the pools in other towns close.

“There’s a lot of people outside Trowbridge who would struggle to get here. I’m in two minds.”