Wichelstowe Sports Hub
Welcome to the consultation pages for the new Wichelstowe Sports Hub.
Located between Middle and East Wichel the Wichelstowe Sports Hub will include formal sports provision as well as provision for play and informal sports activities. The aim is to create a space which serves the whole community and encourages people to get active whether that be playing in a competitive league or just getting out for a walk along Wichelstowe’s canals.
The works will be funded by Section 106 contributions which is money paid by the Wichelstowe developers to Swindon Borough Council to deliver local infrastructure improvements and community facilities. There may also be opportunities to seek grant funding to support scheme delivery and allow a range of facilities to be delivered.
The legal agreement which defines how the funds should be spent, includes details of the facilities to provided on the site including all weather facilities to cater for summer and winter use including floodlighting, pavilion, car park and play areas. The pavilion will include changing rooms and potentially a community space and cafe.
The site is located within Wroughton Parish and the Parish Council are working alongside the Borough Council to develop the plans.
We are at the early stages of the project and the initial stages of the design work have been focussed on understanding the site by carrying out surveys of the site levels, existing trees and hedgerows, rivers and wildlife. We have also worked with consultants BDP to produce some testing layouts to understand what size facilities can be accommodated on the site.
This work has resulted in a suggested spatial layout, with a pavilion, car park and floodlit all-weather pitch to the north of East Wichel Way and grass pitches and the play provision to the south. The land to the east of the plan will be improved to help mitigate the impact the development will have on wildlife habitats and to improve the path network for residents. New drainage infrastructure will be installed including an attenuation basin with the details to be agreed with the Lead Local Flood Authority as well as the Environment Agency due to the presence of a river running through the site.
Before the detailed design work commences and a planning application is prepared we would welcome feedback from local residents as to what they would like to see included at the Sports Hub. We have also been talking to local sports clubs and welcome feedback from those we haven’t yet spoken to.
Feedback can be provided in the following ways:
- Fill in our short survey (around 5 minutes to complete) - Closing date 15th January
- Add your feedback or suggestions to the suggestion box below
If you or your group would like to discuss the Sports Hub in person you can contact us directly at the e-mail addresses listed in the ‘Who’s Listening’ section of this page.
Once the feedback has been collected and reviewed, the design will be developed and the emerging plans shared with the public for comment. Updates will be added to this page and events will be held in Wichelstowe and Wroughton to view and discuss the plans.
Provide Feedback
Hi, you only talk about all-weather football pitches but there are lots of them in Swindon already, why not make it a 5G pitch so that it can be used for hockey too? There is a thriving hockey scene in Swindon but not many places to play at a high standard so we can't attract higher quality opposition or host high level tournaments. A decent pitch would really help. Swindon Hockey Club has nearly 100 junior players but it is hard to squeeze them onto half a pitch for training because currently we share with the adults so it would be great if we could book a 5G pitch exclusively for the juniors so that we can develop them and encourage more to join. If you don't like football you can play hockey instead and there are lots of children in Swindon in that position. We would need toilets at the pitch for them. Thank you.
Please build provisons for badminton and swimming pool.
Firstly, I’m really pleased this is happening for the local area. I always saw it on the original plans and was curious as to why it hadn’t happened to date. I’d be really keen on football facilities, play zone style activities, kids play areas, a sports cafe, cricket and tennis.
For this to be of real benefit for ALL of the local community, I would strongly urge consideration for facilities (I..e 4G pitch or tennis courts) to be open for free outside of booked times for the local community to use rather than being locked up behind gates.
Too often, facilities such as these only benefit certain groups or those who can afford to pay. And sit empty and unused for large periods of the week.Opening some or all of those ‘empty’ hours up for free play would really encourage local residents to be more active.
My final point is that I would be really keen for there to be opportunity to create new clubs to benefit from these facilities made up of local children. Currently Wichelstowe children for example have to play youth football for Wroughton, Croft or other Swindon clubs. At this stage in the growth of the development it would be great to have Wichelstowe teams with this as a base rather than usage being given over to existing clubs who already utilise other space locally.
The community would need to be given time to set this up rather than a first come first served booking approach.
Why not build a surgery and pharmacy. It would relieve the enormous pressure on Wroughton
please leave the areas for wildlife add trees to it to create a mini wood ie protect the deer that live there also we have sports hubs at deanery , croft and commonweal we dont need anymore also we have the stowaway
I'm a member of a pickleball club that currently plays at delta tennis centre, there are around 40 antendees each week. I'm also aware there are several other clubs currently in operation in Swindon. The facilities are quite old and quite inconvenient as they are not purpose build for pickleball - each session starts with taping out court lines, and we run into issues of fitting the courts on top of the tennis courts as there is not enough space.
It would be amazing to have purpose built facilities as pickleball is an extremely accessible and space efficient sport, that is growing in popularity extremely quickly.
I also think this will encourage people from outside of Swindon as well as inside Swindon to use the facilities, as it will offer something that cannot be found everywhere
Fabulous!
So why wasn't this approach taken with Taylor Wimpey and the Abbey Stadium?
And why can't it be applied to any further application to build on the stadium foot print?
The facilities described do not match the original Wichelstow planning application and S106 agreement. The proposal for flood lit pitches duplicates the facilities already provided at the Deanery which fulfills the requirement of the S106 agreement and which are not fully utilised as it is.
Thank you for your contribution!
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