Skip to main content

To: Councillor Colin Smith, Bromley Council and Gareth Bacon, MP

Save the Walnuts Leisure Centre in Orpington

All options for renovation of the current leisure centre should be explored. The decision to demolish the centre should not be taken lightly. Financial cost, should not be the only consideration. The impact of the demolition process on the health and environment of Orpington Town residents should be high on Bromley Council's considerations' list.

We object to the proposed plan of demolishing the Walnuts Leisure Centre building, leaving Orpington residents without access to the current facilities for at least two years. This is totally unacceptable. No to a smaller Leisure Centre.

Why is this important?

Walnuts Leisure Centre is currently housed in a purpose-built two-level building, constructed in the early 1970s. It has stood the test of time and today it serves as a community hub, offering affordable services and amenities to children, adults and senior citizens.

The new leisure centre that Areli (the developer) is offering will be smaller in terms of square footage, housed on a couple of floors in one of the towers. Yet Areli's proposed plans will bring 2000 new residents, which will add to the pressures on the membership capacity of the Leisure centre.

We fear being priced out of our Leisure centre.

Although Areli, keeps boasting about the proposed 25 metres competition size swimming pool, their plans clearly show lack of pool-side space, that makes the holding of such competitions very difficult. small pool is tiny unsuitable for lessons. See Ojay's (Keep Orpington Swimming) concerns on this link https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=keep%20orpington%20swimming

The wide corridors of the current centre, the spacious halls and the large gym area, has meant that the leisure centre was made Covid-safe and was re-opened after lock down with complete confidence.

If at the end of the day the decision to replace the Leisure centre is the one the Council opts for, the new leisure centre should be constructed before the current one is decommissioned. Furthermore, we need cast iron guarantees that the new leisure centre will be affordable and accessible by all residents who need it.

Further action :

Thank you for signing this petition, please share widely amongst the residents of Bromley.
Write a personal message to Orpington Town councillors and your MP
Councillor Kim Botting Email: [email protected] Mobile: 07947 714 394

Councillor Pauline Tunnicliffe Email: [email protected] Mobile: 07825 887 188

Councillor William Huntington-Thresher Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 07733 116 799

Orpington’s MP: [email protected] tel: 01689 820 347
Bromley & Cray Valley West MP: [email protected] tel: 020 8295 2639
Keep up to date with the news and campaign:
Follow us on Twitter: @areli_walnuts & Like our Facebook page: facebook.com/AreliWalnuts
Facebook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/nutstothewalnuts

#SaveWalnutsLeisureCentre #LeisureServices4All

Orpington, UK

Maps © Stamen; Data © OSM and contributors, ODbL

Updates

2022-01-30 19:27:12 +0000

Though the pool is shown to be eight lanes of 25m – which is excellent – the area around the pool isn’t big enough for officials and swimmers at a competition. There is no storage shown for the lane ropes, timing equipment etc. That means the lane ropes will need to be fixed in place permanently, which in turn means no family splash sessions, no aqua-aerobics, no water polo etc. The training pool is shown to be tiny – more like a little splash pool with no spectator seating. That means it’s not suitable for children’s lessons, which means the children would have to learn in the large pool. But a competition standard pool is too deep, and generally too cold. Either it’s suitable for competitive swimming, or it’s suitable for kids’ lessons The changing rooms are unsuitable and seem too small to fit swimmers after training let alone during a competition

2022-01-30 19:21:38 +0000

Ojay's -Orpington Swimming club's concerns about the proposed Leisure Centre
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=keep%20orpington%20swimming

2022-01-26 17:18:08 +0000

Please object to the Loss of the Leisure Centre Services in contravention of policy No 20 of Local Bromley Plan. post your objection on the comment section on the link below
https://searchapplications.bromley.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=R56N6EBT0RH00&activeTab=summary

2022-01-20 21:02:06 +0000

1,000 signatures reached

2021-12-31 14:56:56 +0000

500 signatures reached

2021-12-22 20:24:28 +0000

100 signatures reached

2021-12-22 17:55:17 +0000

50 signatures reached

2021-12-22 15:12:42 +0000

25 signatures reached

2021-12-22 14:48:43 +0000

10 signatures reached