The results of Stratford-on-Avon District Council's user engagement exercise for the Stratford Leisure & Visitor Centre have been analysed with 4 to 1 in favour of the new scheme.
Whilst over half of the respondents were happy about the changes and agreed the leisure centre and swimming pool is in need of refurbishment, a number of changes have been made to the design and layout following the feedback received from the user consultation.
- Refurbish and upgrade wet-side changing rooms - new lockers, toilets and showers.
- Separate wet-side toilet facilities for male and female customers, instead of the original unisex toilet provision proposed.
- Open plan shower area for quick turnaround during busy periods ie children's swimming lesson change over.
- The Group Changing Rooms will be used as single sex changing outside of the school usage ie weekdays 7am - 9am & 4.30pm – 10.30pm, during the Warwickshire school holidays and at weekends.
- Mixture of individual seats and benches will be installed on the poolside balcony, rather than all benches.
- The deep water storage area has been removed.
- The new dance and spin studios will have adequate air conditioning - in line with national guidelines.
- Number of showers reduced in the steam and sauna area to accommodate a relaxation/seating area.
- Door added to the steam and sauna, rather than open plan at the deep end of the swimming pool.
- The District Council will consult with the Badminton Association to ensure that the new lighting scheme complies with the recreational lux standard.
The new climbing wall facility seems to be a much welcomed addition to the leisure centre, with 76% of respondents stating a positive preference.
One key aspect of the new scheme, the village changing facility, will remain giving the leisure centre greater flexibility to accommodate varying mixes of male and female users including family changing and changing for people with disabilities. The new facility will also allow staff of either sex to supervise, clean and maintain the area. The design allows for adequate privacy with plenty of personal space with adequately sized, good quality cubicles, but the Group Changing Rooms will be made available as single sex changing for those that don't want to use this facility during specific times.
The biggest users of the swimming pool are the local swimming clubs and this style of changing facility is preferred by the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).
Cllr Lynda Organ, Technical Services Portfolio says: “The new facilities are aimed to give a degree of choice and offer a much improved modern environment. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those people that took the time to fill in the questionnaire and give us their feedback. We have listened and looked carefully at all the responses and as a result have made a number of tweaks and improvements to the design based on what people have said."
The findings will be on display at the District Council offices and also at Stratford Leisure & Visitor Centre for the next 2 weeks.
- The consultation took place with residents and users of the centre from Monday 16 December to Monday 20 January
- A variety of consultation methods were used including face to face, online and hard copies of a questionnaire, direct emails, user groups and a local radio phone in.
- In total 104 questionnaires were completed. To put into context annual usage figure of the Leisure Centre is 583,171 visits, equalling 1,597 visits a day. Therefore caution must be applied when analysing the results based upon the limited number of respondents to the user engagement, compared to the average daily number of centre visits.
