Update on Horizon Waterlooville Leisure Centre's refurbishment plans as it aims to provide facilities "as good as anywhere on the south coast"
A Hampshire leisure centre hosted Suella Braverman last week to give her a tour of the facilities and speak about its plans for the future.
The MP for Fareham and Waterlooville visited Horizon Waterlooville on Friday, October 10 with the future refurbishment of the centre one of the items discussed. Horizon Leisure secured funding for an extensive overhaul of the leisure centre last year and, alongside Havant Borough Council, they launched a public consultation last year.
The upgrades are still in the planning stage with initial surveys and design activities currently underway alongside preparation for planning submissions and procurement.
While details are still not confirmed, CEO of Horizon Leisure, Mike Lyons, gave a general overview of where improvements are aiming to be made. These include an upgrade of gym facilities as well as the installation of two outdoor padel courts, a fast growing sport in the UK.
Mike said: “We are really excited to be able to refurbish a facility like this. We have got fantastic facilities and services on offer at Waterlooville but as with all leisure facilities you need to keep them modern and current.
“We were very fortunate to be able to access some funds from the council to enhance the facilities. Alongside the council we have asked the people in the community what they would want and the majority of people want to see the gym facilities improved.
“We will invest a sum of the money into better gym, health and wellbeing facilities but also facilities that meet the need of a wider customer base. Things that can help with prehabilitation, getting people into activity rather than those that already are active, to attract new people to lead a healthier lifestyles.”
Mike added: “The other big thing is padel. There is a lot of excitement about it, not least that it is a new sport for local people to try out but also there are not many courts in the local area. They would potentially be adjacent to the gym based in the overspill car park.
“That would really add another dimension to the facility, from children to adults to families wanting to play padel. It would make such a difference and have a remarkable impact giving people a diversity of activities to take part in at Waterlooville.”
The initial idea would be to remodel the car park in order to house the courts and ensure it did not reduce the amount of parking spaces available.
The charity is aiming high as it looks ahead to the refurbishment. Peter Lewis, chairman of the Horizon Board of Trustees, said: “We have an expanding population here and our ambition as a charity is to provide fantastic accessible facilities as good as anywhere on the south coast of England. What we've got at the moment is good but we're going to take that from good to being great. We believe we can deliver that next year.”
The next steps of the refurbishment works will see design work continue through the autumn, with the proposals for the outdoor padel courts and improved parking, before moving towards planning and construction in 2026 - Horizon Leisure have confirmed.
The visit from Suella Braverman was about more than the refurbishment works though with their work in the community a focal point, work which impressed the MP.
She said: “It's been a fantastic visit and I want to thank Mike and Peter who lead the team at Waterlooville Leisure Centre run by Horizon. It's a charitable organisation and the benefits and the service and the outreach for the local Waterlooville community is immense and incredibly impressive.
“Interestingly a third of the population in the Havant district are inactive and a large proportion of our children here in the Havant district are inactive. That’s a higher level than the national average.
“Here at Waterlooville Leisure Centre, they're very cognisant of that demographic factor. There's a lot of focus on helping the local communities and for that I really applaud the team.”
Mike added: “We were delighted to have Suella visit Waterlooville Leisure Centre, firstly to see the great work that Horizon does as a charitable organisation, but also to look at options around support that we could get from the wider government to help support and fund future activities.”