sport & fitness

Bricket Wood Sports Centre closed on 28 Feb 2010

On 3 Mar 09, members of St Albans City and District Council decided to 'cease the council's operation' of Bricket Wood Sports Centre on 28 Feb 2010 for the following reasons: 

• usage levels for Bricket Wood Sports Centre have been declining since the opening of Watford Leisure Centre (Woodside), accessible to existing users of Bricket Wood Sports Centre; 95% of whom currently come by car
• data provided by the Sport England National Benchmarking Service (NBS) indicates that Bricket Wood Sports Centre is performing very poorly in both financial and usage terms
• 50 per cent of existing users of Bricket Wood Sports Centre are non-residents of St Albans District
• the closure of Bricket Wood Sports Centre is required to fund the re-development of Westminster Lodge
• significant capital investment is required over the next five years to maintain Bricket Wood Sports Centre in its current condition

To mitigate the impact of the closure, council members decided:

• to explore the feasibility of residents of the Bricket Wood, How Wood and Park Street areas accessing Watford Leisure Centre (Woodside) at discounted Watford Borough residents' rates from 28 Feb 2010 until the new facilities at Cotlandswick Open Space and/or Westminster Lodge become operational
• to assist the clubs that currently use Bricket Wood Sports Centre in finding alternative provision.

Cllr Sheila Burton, portfolio holder for sport and healthy living said: "In deciding where they go for their sport and physical activity, people do not recognise established local authority boundaries, rather they look for easy access and good quality. The usage of Bricket Wood Sports Centre has dramatically dropped since the new Woodside Centre at Watford opened. This decision gives us a year's grace to assist existing users to find alternative provision. The Culture and Community Development department will be contacting clubs and working with them to find alternative facilities around the district, like Redbourn Recreation Centre which currently has spare capacity."

Cllr Burton can be contacted at The Old School, Sandridgebury Lane, St Albans AL3 6KB AL4 0NR, tel: 01727 863 598, email: cllr.s.burton@stalbans.gov.uk