This week heralded the much-anticipated opening of our town’s new flagship leisure centre at Rivermead.
I paid a visit myself last Friday for a tour of the facilities just before they opened to the public on Monday. I can promise you that it does not disappoint.
As well as a roomy 120-station gym with three studios and a six-court sports hall (which comes equipped with 250 spectator seats), visitors to the new Rivermead can enjoy the inviting new café and an exciting soft play area for the kids.
Actually, the soft play area is massive and, unusually for such a facility, it’s got lovely natural light… so much nicer than the typical warehouse locations of such things and will doubtless be a great addition to the summer holidays for families.
We want residents to make the most of their fantastic new facility so, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to sign up for your free Reading Resident Card and benefit from 30% off the standard prices.
All being well, this time next year Rivermead will also boast two modern new swimming pools – a 25-metre eight-lane competition pool alongside a teaching and diving pool. Both come with moveable floors and over 300 spectator seats (including accessible wheelchair spaces).
This is also alongside a fun splash pad for younger users, which is always popular.
In an ideal world, we would, of course, have opened the two new pools at the same time as the rest of the new centre, but a backlog of applications at the Environment Agency meant there were delays in our partners getting the necessary licences in place to make that possible.
As frustrating for everyone as that is, I’m sure the pools will be worth the wait when they finally open.
Rivermead’s incredible new facilities form part of this Council’s significant £40 million investment in the leisure offer for Reading residents.
It has already delivered improvements at South Reading Leisure Centre and Meadway Sports Centre, and of course the brand-new Palmer Park Leisure Centre and Stadium, complete with new 25-metre community pool, which opened only in December.
South Reading Leisure Centre and Meadway Sports Centre both underwent significant overhauls last year, with fantastic new open-plan gyms and revamped studios. Further work has started this month to improve Meadway’s swimming pool changing facilities and a complete refurbishment of South Reading’s swimming pool will start in September.
It all marks a new chapter for leisure in Reading. We are improving and modernising services and facilities across the town so that every resident can benefit.
It includes major investments in Reading’s parks and other leisure facilities, including a destination ‘play’ hub for Reading at Prospect Park, which opened last year, complete with a nine-hole mini-golf and low ropes climbing for younger kids. A new café at this location is also opening soon.
Then there is the huge new play area in the same park which opened earlier this year – everything coming together to make Prospect Park another great family destination for the summer holidays. Judging by the number of children on the equipment every time I walk past, it’s proving to be popular.
Our modern facilities will help improve the mental and physical health and wellbeing of our residents. Alongside this, addressing the climate crisis remains a top priority for us and we have worked hard to ensure all our new facilities have integral measures to reduce carbon emissions, using renewables and improving energy efficiency to make Reading’s leisure facilities as environmentally friendly as possible.
Our leisure project has been a long time in the making, but it is truly fantastic to see it all coming to fruition.
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council and ward member for Southcote
