Council to make decision on new £17.8m leisure centre for Slough

Plans for a multi-million pound project to demolish The Centre in Slough and build a brand new leisure facility have been revealed.

Councillors are due to discuss the borough's own application for the development in Farnham Road to go ahead.

The £17.8m new centre will have an eight-lane swimming pool, a learner pool, five-court sports hall, fitness suite, changing facilities, cafe and dance studios.

A total of 95 car parking spaces will be provided, which is significantly fewer than the 200 spaces which exist at The Centre currently.

The proposal states this number is ‘unlikely to be sufficient’ but concludes the planning team is looking into making use of the 85-space council-owned car park in Whitby Road.

Officers believe the new facility ‘highlights sport, leisure and health related policies and objectives in the council’s five-year plan’ and its leisure strategy which calls for ‘more people, more active, more often’.

First built in 1998, The Centre was identified as the preferred site for a new leisure centre by members of Slough Borough Council’s (SBC) cabinet in March last year.

Subject to planning permission, it is hoped the project will take two years to build with a finish date set for autumn 2018.

The project is part of SBC’s £33.4m leisure strategy which also includes the £7.9m Arbour Park Community Sports Facility in Stoke Road and the £7.7m refurbishment of Absolutely Ice in Montem Lane.

The application will be discussed at a planning meeting on Thursday at The Centre in Farnham Road at 6.30pm.

Councillors will decide whether to support the application and delegate it to the relevant planning manager for final approval. This would be given once the outstanding issues with the application have been resolved.

However, Cllr Diana Coad (UKIP, Langley St Mary’s) believes the project should be postponed following the recent change in leadership at SBC.

She said: “I still think it is a waste of taxpayers’ money and the building is perfectly adequate as it is. With the recent change in leadership I think this project and others like the refurbishment of the ice arena should be put on hold.”