former River Park Leisure Centre - withdrawal from development bid process

Sport Winchester has consistently supported the utilisation of this site for ongoing sporting and recreational use throughout the development of the WCC Local Plan and remain supportive of any cohesive plan to deliver this.

Within the current development process being run by the Council, it is clear from both expressions of interest and the community feedback, that there are a number of good ideas for both a lido and multi-use indoor sport function rooms, from multiple interested parties. Sport Winchester recommends that the Council holds joint meetings with all parties to try and develop a single feasible plan for this site that the majority of interested parties and the community could agree on.

We believe the challenge of each interested party having to raise funds for both the not insignificant cost of independent bids, plus cost of demolition and rebuild, will preclude many from participating, with the likelihood being that the City will not receive any tangible bids from non commercial organisations in April, and the problem of what to do with the site will remain.

We recommend that the Council is directly involved in developing a community use solution across the interested parties, and should delay the current bid deadline to achieve this.

Sport Winchester produced some early potential designs for use on this site, but recognise and respect the wider community support for a predominantly Lido use of this site, and subsequently have taken the reluctant decision to withdraw from the current bid process, enabling the Lido based bid proposal to conclude in conjunction with other interested parties.

Sport Winchester researched the needs and requirements of Member sports clubs and other interested parties, and on the back of these identified needs, developed a plan for this site. The proposal included a sports hall big enough for two indoor netball courts / basketball courts, multi-use dance studios and music practice rooms, a small dance / music theatre, padel courts, Pilates studios and a boxing centre.

The radleyhouse partnership then developed the architects design plan for this site, which we published to gain feedback, and to inspire positive discussion.

It is our assessment that the building has degraded to such an extent that any re-use is financially unviable, and it should be demolished by the Council.