High-rise apartments, warehouses and no sports hall have been revealed in leaked plans for the Oasis Leisure Centre refurbishment.
This follows a closed pre-planning meeting on Wednesday evening during which Swindon Borough Council's planning committee and planning officers and representatives from leaseholders SevenCapital and their architect discussed details of the upcoming application.
Information from that meeting, which was supposed to be kept confidential, has been leaked to members of the public, including the Save Oasis Campaign (SOS) group, revealing the scaling back of outdoor leisure facilities, reduction of parking spaces and the following-through of demolishing the sports hall.
The SOS campaign has reacted to the plans by calling for members of the public to support the campaign "more than ever" as it continues to push for the hall to remain.
Meanwhile, Swindon Borough Council says it is "extremely disappointing" that details of the upcoming planning application have been released before they could be made publicly accessible on a dedicated website set up by SevenCapital.
The leaked proposals, presented by architect Ian Harding via Teams, included a 3D model showing nine high-rise blocks of flats ranging from six to eight storeys, which have been described by some have seen them as "resembling soviet era architecture".
They also demonstrated that the car park consisting of almost 500 spaces would be significantly reduced to 200.
Also included in the plans are two large industrial units described as 'B&Q/Amazon style warehouses."
The iconic dome is, of course, being retained alongside the lagoon pool, dome busters slides and dry-side facilities of a gym, cafe and bowling alley.
The Save Oasis Swindon campaign said: "As we expected there will be no hall included, there will be a bowling alley, that’s confirmed, a café and a gym, that’s it.
"But what’s quite concerning is that there’s also going to be high-rise apartments all around the Oasis site, including warehouses as well, which sounds mean it’s just going to be completely saturated with housing and completely ruin the leisure land.
“Obviously we’re not surprised about the houses because that was planned from day one. But what we are concerned about is the leisure centre getting reduced in size for the sake of profit and housing, and that is not acceptable.
"Because the Oasis Leisure Centre is a famous venue, even more famous now, and it’s very important when this planning application is submitted soon that the whole of Swindon back our campaign and get behind us to object to this in numbers and explain why it’s important that a hall is rebuilt at the Oasis.”
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A spokesperson for Swindon Borough Council said: "It is extremely disappointing that a person with privileged access to commercially confidential information has tried to pre-empt and undermine the forthcoming public consultation process by sharing their negative views with the media.
“This is a serious confidentiality breach that the Council will investigate fully. SevenCapital has previously announced its intention to carry out a public consultation once plans have been submitted. This will allow everyone to fully review and comment on plans for the refurbishment of the Oasis Leisure Centre and the wider regeneration of the area.
“In the meantime, members of the public can leave their details on SevenCapital’s consultation webpage (https://www.swindonoasis.co.uk/) to receive further details of the scheme when available.”
SevenCapital set up the website recently and has announced that the planning application will be sent in "this year."
It is hoped by the council that the refurbished Oasis will be reopened in 2026, the year of its 50th anniversary.
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