Even after the COVID restrictions are lifted, Kenilworth residents still won't be able to use the leisure centre at Abbey Fields and Castle Farm.
Instead, they'll have to travel by road to leisure venues in either Warwick or Leamington. And they won't even be able to use the train because the Kenilworth train service is currently suspended.
Warwick District Council says the swimming pools and leisure centres will stay closed until the proposed building works have been finished. But no one is quite sure when that will be.
Kenilworth Town Councillors from all parties are deeply disappointed with this decision.
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Kenilworth Town Councillors have expressed huge disappointment with Warwick District Council’s plan not to reopen the leisure facilities in Abbey Fields and at Castle Farm until such time as the proposed building works have been completed.
The district council’s plan will be discussed at a meeting on 11 February of the council’s executive.
The much-delayed planning applications for both of the sites have yet to be fully submitted for consideration by the town council and district council planning committees.
“The proposals for both the swimming pools and the leisure centre are expected to attract considerable interest from residents with concerns about the loss of the outdoor pool and parking and traffic concerns.
Town Councillors were informed about the plan not to re-open either the swimming pool or the leisure centre only on Monday 1 February.
Responding to the district council executive’s plans, Cllr John Dearing and Cllr Kate Dickson – leaders of Kenilworth Town Council’s Green and Liberal Democrat groups respectively and representing 15 out of 17 members of the Council – said “both the indoor and outdoor Abbey Fields swimming pools and the Castle Farm leisure centre are public facilities which are very popular amongst both Kenilworth residents and visitors to the town."
The planning applications have not yet even been fully submitted, let alone validated or presented to committees for consideration, so there is absolutely no certainty that it will be possible to start demolition work in September 2021 as the district council proposes.
The pools and the leisure centre are vital to the physical and mental wellbeing of local residents and are also important in attracting tourists to the town. In recent months people have been prevented by the government’s COVID restrictions from using these facilities.
When hopefully these constraints are lifted later this year, residents will still continue – as a result of the District Council’s plans – to be unable to do so. Instead, residents will be expected to travel by road to leisure venues in either Warwick or Leamington; they can’t use the train because the Kenilworth train service is currently suspended.
We’re also concerned about the extra burden that will be placed on all the community groups that use Castle Farm leisure centre during the prolonged closure. This includes local Scouts and Guides groups, as well as the many users of the petanque area.
We appreciate that, if planning permission is eventually granted, the sites will have to close during the building work. However, a more user-focused closure timetable would be a much better way of doing things, for example by closing each site one month before the confirmed start date of demolition."
