Town needs more sports centres

4:08pm Wednesday 2nd July 2008

Comments (3)   Have your say »

Two new sports centres should be built and another expanded in a bid to boost Didcot's flagging leisure facilities, experts have said.

A draft report by South Oxfordshire District Council suggests a new multi-use leisure centre should replace the Didcot Wave, in Newlands Avenue.

The report believes it is vital to meet the shortfall of sport and recreation provision in Didcot. The swimming complex and gym is 15 years old.

The report will be finalised later this month, but it is up for discussion at a cabinet meeting tomorrow.

It suggests the planned sports facility, at new development Great Western Park, should be extended to incorporate more services, and a further site should be identified as an outdoor pitch to provide for the increasing population.

Residents have complained that the town's limited leisure facilities have decreased over the past 20 years.

Town council leader John Flood said: "The long-term plan is good and met with approval all around.

"The town itself has been short of 14 hectares of leisure land for at least 20 years. We've been searching for recreation ground for some time."

Tennis player Jean Gannon, 72, said: "Didcot needs as much as it can possibly get."

And Didcot Cricket Club coach David Slade said: "When Didcot was a little town of 5,000 people, the facilities were nothing like enough for the number of people, and now the facilities are less than they were then."