Today, Monday 21st August 2017, the newly refurbished Newbold Comyn Leisure Centre re-opened the first phase of it’s revamp, the swimming pool and fitness facilities. I took my children (age 4 & 8) to see what improvements had been made and what is now on offer for local families.

If you had been a member of our support and advice group Mum Knows Best Warwickshire last year, you wouldn’t have escaped the constant criticism of the previous Newbold Comyn Swimming Pool. There were almost daily complaints from a hygiene point of view, with lots of parents complaining of dirty changing areas and poor staff management.

The centre has been closed since the beginning of the year along with St Nicholas Leisure Centre, which caused problems for many local families including our daughter whose school was forced to cancel swimming lessons, something she had been looking forward to for the entire previous school year. The council explained the dual closure would “ensure that the works would be completed much quicker and reopen brand new, state of the art facilities by the end of the year.” I’m sure there are local families who still disagree with the plans to do that simultaneously but hey, who are we to comment?

The centres are still under council control, but are now managed by Everyone Active, who will also be the management partner for St Nicholas Park Leisure centres, as well as Abbey Fields Swimming Pool, Castle Farm Recreation Centre, Meadow Community Sports Centre and John Atkinson Sports Centre as of 1st June this year. The £14.5 million refurbishment and improvement programmes at Newbold Comyn and St Nicholas Park are now almost complete and we went to see what Newbold Comyn has to offer us as local parents now in it’s first phase opening.

The Newbold Comyn Leisure Centre swimming pool boasts brand new 100 station gym and fitness studios and opens currently with temporary reception area and temporary overflow changing provision, until the completion of the village changing facilities and sports hall in Spring 2018.

Parking is currently at the car park which serves The Newbold Comyn Arms, families will need to cross the road to access the reception at the front of the building until the new carpark is complete. There is no pedestrian crossing.

In the temporary reception area are staffed information desks, two vending machines with drinks and snacks and ‘Zoggs’ stands with goggles and floats etc available to purchase.

The female changing rooms are straight ahead of you and you will need a NEW £1 coin to use the lockers. I’ve included pictures below to give you an idea of locker size. There are communal showers and two shower cubicles with doors. There are also three toilets (see images below). There is a small area with two hairdryers and space for another. The locker area has a bench directly in front of the lockers, meaning if two people have lockers nearby it would be hard to change in the same area, I can see this being an issue at busy times especially if you have a family. The addition of a central benched area would have been more useful here allowing people space to put their belongings. There is one small plastic baby changing table and some benches in front of pegs too. These changing rooms were clean when we visited though there was only one bin which is a yellow one, not a normal one.

It’s not clear at the time of publishing if these changing rooms are temporary, I am awaiting clarification on this. It has been rumoured that changing rooms will be unisex at some point but at the moment male and female changing is separate.

Ratios – 1 adult : 2 Under 8 Year olds (confined by the leisure centre)