Opinions towards a new hub

• Swim England and the swimming groups in Portsmouth all support the proposal to build a new physical activity and community hub at Bransbury Park. They recognise the need for a new, updated pool. If it provides the right facilities for their activities, they’d be very likely to use it.
• Pompey in the Community said that they support the proposal, explaining that they think it definitely needs to be done at Bransbury Park.
• The councillors also supported the proposal for the same reasons.

“It all sounds really good and promising like you’ve got the right ideas in place. So yes, positives from my point of view.” (Swim England)

“I think it’s a good idea… it’s about making sure that there’s a facility for the next generation… People are really pleased that it looks as if we’ll have a modern facility that’s going to be here and doing things positively for the next 25-30 years.” (Councillor)

• The netball and badminton organisations were the least in favour. They were worried about losing sports courts.
• However, they said that they’re open to understanding how their sports could be “rehoused”. This could include using other venues across the city, or having access to at least some new courts at Bransbury Park.

“Potentially I think it’s a really, really exciting project. I think for the community, for everybody involved as well. But it’s just about managing and finding out what netball is going to lose or a plan if you’re using six to ten courts for the evening, we don’t want to see that diminish at all.” (Netball England)

“So if there is genuinely an opportunity to rehouse what’s at Southsea as much as possible and maintain as close as possible the pay and play opportunities and that is genuinely accessible to the clubs in terms of travel to the centres, so you would have to speak to the clubs again. Then, we would be open to working to do that.” (Badminton England)