New Trowbridge leisure centre

No final decisions have yet been made. However, at this stage, Wiltshire Council's East Wing site, located across the road from County Hall, has been identified as the preferred location. We have a lot of work to carry out before we can confirm that this will be the actual location. A single member decision has been published to confirm this latest development and this is subject to a call-in period.

Although we are very confident in the work we have carried out so far, if upon further detailed investigation we don't deem East Wing as a suitable location, or other opportunities emerge, then we will reconsider the options available to us. We looked at a number of sites and assessed their suitability for a leisure centre, taking into account a variety of factors, including accessibility, site ownership, timescales, planning consideration and deliverability.

East Wing came out favourably among the other options considered, as it has good public transport links, there would be no impact to customers during build, it's within walking distance of the town centre, which brings economic benefits, and it's a site that we already own. This location will also be most beneficial to people who will get the most out of such a centre.  

We have carried out extensive consultation and a review of a wide range of evidence and data. As a result, we have identified proposed facilities for the new centre that we believe will most benefit communities and the local area. They include: 

• a six-lane, 25m swimming pool
• 7m x 13m learner pool
• gym with 120 exercise stations 
• two studios
• spin studio
• community meeting room 
• café
• adventure play  - providing active play for young people

• live well suite - providing a dedicated space for older people to exercise.

It's important to note that these facilities are not confirmed and subject to change.

The proposed facilities do not include a sports hall, squash courts or gymnasium. We intend to retain these facilities and dry changing rooms at Trowbridge Sports Centre. 

We will now look to appoint consultants to progress the scheme which will involve activities such as carrying out surveys, site investigations, developing a project brief, developing a project programme and agreeing a procurement strategy.  In the coming months we hope to be in a position to confirm the suppliers that we will be working with on the leisure centre project, such as project specialists, architects and engineers.

There will be no imminent changes to leisure services in Trowbridge as a project of this scale will take a number of years to complete.

Although it's too early date to provide a date on when the new centre will be in place, we anticipate that construction will commence in 2025.

We provided an update on our plans to develop a new leisure centre in Trowbridge a Trowbridge Area Board on 6 July 2023

The area board was an opportunity for us to talk through some of its engagement work and the feedback received, which has helped inform our planning up to this point.

Prior to the council confirming East Wing as the preferred site for the leisure centre, we carried out extensive local engagement to find out what type of leisure services people use.

Almost 1,000 people took a survey in the summer and autumn of 2022 and it showed that people who use leisure centres use the pool the most, whether that be lane or family swimming sessions (31%) followed by the gym (21%), and then fitness classes (13%). Of those surveyed, swimming was the activity that people wanted to do more of (selected by 23% of respondents).

We also engaged with more than 550 young people to get their views. It was found that the most common place used by young people to do exercise was their PE lessons. Of those surveyed, 30% said they don't use any of the current leisure centres in Trowbridge. Among young people, swimming was rated the most popular activity and something they would like to do more of.

As well as the engagement work, we also gathered a range of evidence, which included looking at the usage of existing facilities, analysis of potential catchment areas and looking at the barriers to people participating in leisure activities. All of this work has been carried out using guidance from Sport England.

Looking ahead, in the coming months we hope to be in a position to confirm the suppliers that we will be working with on the leisure centre project, such as project specialists, architects and engineers.

New Trowbridge leisure centre discussed at area board meeting - 11 July 2023

Trowbridge leisure centre project moves a step forward as preferred location confirmed - 22 May 2023

Trowbridge leisure project continues to make progress as council considers its options - 20 January 2023