A sports hall, swimming pool and diving pool are all part of a brand new family-friendly leisure centre in Morden, the Merton Council revealed last week.
Speaking at a public consultation meeting, Cllrs Christine Parsloe and Christopher Jones presented the location and design of the leisure centre, located at St Thomas College’s Merton Campus, at the Morden Civic Centre.
Although the sports hall is still set to be part of the planning application, due to be completed later this month, Mr Jones confirmed that the sports hall will not be built initially unless the council can find a further £1.7 – £1.9 million.
A mother from Colliers Wood, who has a son who swims competitively, raised concerns about the possibility of hosting competitions but Ms Parsloe, Merton Council’s leisure and culture manager, assured that there is room for this but the main function is focused on it being family friendly.
Ms Parsloe explained the sports hall – which will include four badminton courts – will be included in the planning application and will commence building once they have sufficient funding.
She said: “We have a whole plethora of ideas but it’s going to be a real mix around with putting a contractor on board as time goes on.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a while before we know what the shortfall is but we’ve got some rough figures in mind.”
Concerns were raised by a couple members of the public with regards to the amount of parking as it is also shared with the college
The leisure centre is to replace the current pools on the college’s campus and will offer a 6-lane, 25m swimming pool with a separate diving pool that has a movable floor to offer flexibility for other services.
During the consultation, one of the additional facilities people wanted to see to make it more family friendly was a cafe which is also going to be built next to the swimming pool.
The planning application is to be sent to the council by the end of the month and, subject to approval, building will commence in October.
The official opening of the leisure centre is January 2018.
Picture courtesy of Devon Christopher Adams, with thanks
