Plans to transform Shrewsbury Sports Village with new pools are backed by swimming organisations
Plans to transform Shrewsbury Sports Village – including by adding new swimming pools – have received the backing of people in the town.
Shropshire Council has submitted plans (25/02658/FUL) for the site in Sundorne which were given the go-ahead by the authority’s previous administration and had been shaped following a public consultation.
Built in 2005, the complex comprises a series of dry-sports facilities and changing rooms, while outside there are football pitches, multi-use netball and tennis courts and a floodlit cycle track.
However, a proposal is to have two new pools, including a 25-metre, eight-lane pool suitable for county championships, galas and general swimming.
It would include seating for 250 spectators, with other facilities such as a new children’s soft play area, multi-purpose studio, dance studio, and a 30-station cycle spin studio also part of the scheme.
Megan Frost, chair of the Shropshire Amateur Swimming Association, said the county has not had a competition pool for many years, meaning that meetings have had to take place in Wolverhampton.
“This proposed facility would mean we could bring our county competitions back home and be held within the county,” she said.
“Also, several of our clubs host Open Meets which they too would be able to be held here.”
Anna Fletcher, the chair of Shrewsbury Amateur Swimming Club, is also backing it.
“Our club is over 150 years old and supports over 100 swimmers who live throughout the town wards and local villages,” she said.
“This new facility will enable us to continue to ensure that swimming is a sport for all and not only for those who can afford to travel to train and compete at larger pools outside of the county.
“Over the past few years, the club has seen a large uptake of young people coming into the sport of swimming and it is important that those swimmers are able to train and compete in a facility that is fit for purpose & within our home county.”
The development was descussed by Shrewsbury’s Town Council’s Planning Committee on Tuesday (August 12). However, while members didn’t object to the application, they were concerned about the removal of parking spaces and would like more information about the provision of additional spaces.
Sport England has also asked to be consulted “as a matter of some urgency” because it considers the application to fall under one of the following definitions:
It is likely to prejudice the use of, or lead to the loss of use of, land being used as a playing field, is on land which has been used as a playing field at any time in the five years before the making of the relevant application and which remains undeveloped, or allocated for use as a playing field in a development plan or in proposals for such a plan or its alternation or replacement, or
It involves the replacement of the grass surface of a playing pitch on a playing field with an artificial, man-made or composite surface
