Poor plan for Health Hydro

If you fancy a swim at the Hydro, then I'm sorry you're too late. It's odd that the doors would be closed so soon when no contractor has even yet been identified to do the work, but it demonstrates just how keen Better, the present operator is, to see it shut.

You may think that before our council invests £1.5m of our money and a further £5m from general taxation, some consultation with the users and broader community might take place, but sadly this is Swindon.

If the borough council had listened to the views of the rather impressive Friends of the Hydro, than just the current operator “Better” then we would likely end up with a better (excuse the pun) thought-through proposal for the longer term.

For those not familiar with the plan, there are no dedicated toilets for the gym and exercise users, who will access toilets via the mixed changing area.

If there are swimming galas, then spectators will also need to arrive and depart through that same changing area. It will clearly be overburdened at peak times with only four showers and four ladies toilets to serve potentially up to 40 swimmers, gym users, exercise classes, and Turkish bathers and even people in the reception waiting area.

This is both a capacity issue and the mixed changing proposed throws up all kinds of safeguarding issues with men, women, boys and girls all needing to use this same area.

I have to say the thought of 10 year old girls in the same room as perspiring bodybuilders doesn't fill me with a warm feeling?

The Hydro is geographically at the centre of the most diverse population demographic in our town, a huge potential user group 27,000 people in walking distance. With this setup as planned, its probable women will end up entirely excluded for cultural reasons?

Further I'm especially incensed over the plan (or lack of plan) for the learner pool, which I have argued for over many years. It has now been added as an afterthought just before the election.

But I’m right to be cynical. It crops up in a hypothetical phase four, but with this pool now cut off from access to changing, showering and toilets, can this even be serious?

Finally the heritage element of the splendid building is completely ignored. There is to be no proper reception, just a space with a desk, a “me too” leisure centre reception.

No thought is given to how future users of the whole building may wait or make their way through.

Additionally don't be confused by “Better” allegedly spending £200,000 on gym equipment, because we know (and we know from lived experience at the Oasis), when things get tough this firm takes to the hills, dragging any equipment investments with them.

If you, like me and the friends, are concerned about mixed changing, the lack of a thought out user circulation plan and toilets, the relegation of the learner pool to an afterthought and the abandonment of any integrated presentation of the building heritage, then write to Richard Bell, Chief Planning Officer at Swindon Borough Council, whose committee will be considering this in the next 10 days.

Perhaps they may inject some common sense?

John Stooke

Haydon End

Sub-standard work

While it's good to read that utility companies can be fined for leaving poorly fixed road surfaces, I'm not sure this will be policed at all well by local authorities.

Sub-standard work by contractors and an unwillingness on the part of local authorities to hold them to account is par for the course.

It's time for change.

Des Morgan

Caraway Drive

Swindon

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