At the Wantage Town Council Meeting last week, the councillors discussed Section 106 funding relating to leisure facilities.

Section 106 funding is the way that many of the large developments being built in this area contribute to the infrastructure required for the residents of those new developments.

The agreement between the council and developers specifies what the money should be spent on, such as “Swimming Pool provision in the vicinity (within 4 miles)”.

From about 2008 to 2020, many of the leisure contributions were earmarked by the District Council for the new Wessex Leisure Centre that they planned to build between Wantage and Grove.

In early 2020, the Council announced that the plans had been cancelled and the leisure centre would not be built. At the same time, they announced the development of a new Active Communities Strategy.

This strategy has not been delivered and won’t be delivered until after the next election.

Much of the money paid by developers for leisure facilities here has not been spent and won’t buy as much now as it would have when it was first received.

No only that but the football pitches on the Persimmon development which should have been completed before 500 homes were occupied are unlikely to materialise for at least another year yet no enforcement action is planned.

So, what have our councillors been doing to improve the leisure facilities in this area since 2008?

From 2011 to 2019, we had Conservative councils at both Wantage Town and the Vale of the White Horse.

Little was done to improve local facilities because they promised to build the new Leisure Centre and were expecting the Government to continue paying large bonuses for new homes built in the area which (together with the developer contributions) would pay for a new Centre.

In the meantime, the government contributions paid for major improvements to the White Horse Leisure Centre in Abingdon which now has state of the art facilities including: a gym, fitness class studio, 8 lane swimming pool, teaching pool, 2 squash courts, 8 badminton courts, a sports hall, sauna & steam room, 6 indoor tennis courts and 4 artificial grass courts.

Since the Liberal Democrats took over both of the Councils (and government funding was reduced), the new Wessex Leisure Centre has been cancelled and large sums have been spent on upgrading the Faringdon Leisure Centre.

No upgrades have been made to Wantage Leisure Centre.