Winchester Fit for the Future was a community project run by volunteers between 2011 and 2024, under the auspices of the Winchester Sport Art and Leisure Trust. It brought together local sports clubs and stakeholder organisations in the Winchester area.
The project team worked to secure a lasting legacy from the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Our efforts were focused on developing sustainable and accessible community sports facilities, as poor facilities are the major constraint to improving sports provision locally, particularly for children and young people. Prior to our project, Winchester was not well placed to draw on the legacy of London 2012, due to gaps in sports provision and an ageing public leisure facility that was too small. Many of our community sports clubs lacked a base, struggled to access existing facilities, and had long waiting lists as a result.
Our priority was therefore to secure a new sport and leisure centre to serve the City of Winchester, its surrounding District and broader catchment. We achieved this initial goal and a new centre – with a flexible 50m swimming pool – was built at Bar End. It opened to the public in May 2021, following a decade's worth of intense voluntary effort by the Winchester Fit for the Future project!
Starting in 2011, we undertook detailed research and analysis, consulting national governing bodies for sport and local experts. We developed community proposals for a centre to expand participation in sport, support training, and host competitions and other events. These were published in May 2012. Our research, and that of others, indicated the need for and the long-term viability of several core sports facilities in Winchester, including:
a 50m community pool, with dividing boom(s) and variable depth – now available in the new sport and leisure centre at Bar End
a sports arena that can accommodate 3 competition standard netball/basketball courts – not yet available; the sports hall at Bar End is too small and has no proper viewing gallery, bleacher seating or team changing
a gymnastics and trampolining facility – now available via a new community gymnastics centre developed by Treasure Gymnastics in Winnall (see their website)
indoor facilities and spectator seating alongside the athletics track at Bar End – not yet available
An unique relay from the London 2012 stadium to Winchester's own athletics track highlighted the chance to build an Olympic and Paralympic legacy for our city and district. We submitted a petition to Winchester City Council on 7th November 2012, encouraging them to work with clubs and other local institutions to develop a new competition-standard facility. In total, the petition gained 3434 signatures and was endorsed by 14 top athletes or high-profile members of the Winchester community. Studio Four Architects then helped us develop site plans and design concepts that reflected the Winchester Fit for the Future proposals: the most popular layout and design set a new building alongside the athletics track at Bar End and incorporated all the core sports facilities listed above, with a strong emphasis on sustainability. A short video summarising the community proposals and a vision for Bar End can be found here.
As Winchester City Council developed its own proposals, from 2013 onwards, we gave extensive feedback on these, gave evidence to the Council’s Informal Scrutiny Group on the issues, and made many statements to various Council committees. We also worked with local clubs and governing bodies to develop additional proposals for specific facilities – such as those for gymnastics and trampolining and indoor athletics – and we put forward "commitments to hire" certain types of facility. In 2014, a new charity (the Winchester Sport Art and Leisure Trust) was set up and community fundraising began through the 2012 Hours and SOS Save Our Sports campaigns.
This community effort culminated in the Council agreeing in 2016 to build a new centre at Bar End with a 50m pool and 12-court (3 netball/basketball court) hall. Following a sustained community effort (including an Open Letter to the board of Tesco PLC), the Council purchased the Garrison Ground from Tesco PLC. At last, the Council had secured the right location, for a facility with a good specification! Hooray... we thought.
Unfortunately, in 2017, the Council's Cabinet opted to scale back their plans, in response to pushback from their officers, consultants and architect, reducing the size of the sports hall and removing spectator seating; even then, their cost estimates continued to escalate. The final cost of the new centre was around £43m – roughly twice the best estimate we received ourselves from affordable contractors. In 2018, the Council opted to tender for a commercial leisure operator to manage the new centre – rather than setting up a community trust or other local entity to do so – and Everyone Active was appointed in 2019. Both the tender pack and contractual agreement were withheld from the public, and even from most city councillors, but among other things they excluded our local swimming club from offering lessons at the new facility. Indeed, when it opened in 2021, many city clubs struggled to secure bookings at the centre, particularly for competitive use. So, the work continues – to identify opportunities to improve existing facilities and develop new ones, so our community clubs can thrive and more local children and adults can participate in sport. The Winchester Fit for the Future project also worked to secure a sustainable legacy from the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics in other ways, for example by compiling a Guide to Winchester’s Community Sports Clubs to give local people a taste of what’s on offer locally. There are MANY great community sports clubs and other organisations in and around our City, providing low-cost and sometimes free provision for children, young people and adults. An updated 2024Club Directory developed by Sport Winchester was funded by Winchester SALT and the responsibility for co-ordinating the city's community sports sector and its work to secure new facilities has now passed to them. Please see their website here.