Protestors call for 'sports hall for all' at Houghton Regis leisure centre opening

As two Olympians marked the opening of the leisure and community centre in Parkside Drive, more than 50 people lined up outside and called for the council address their concerns over the facilities.

Chairman of the Luton and Houghton Regis Basketball Club, Dru Spinks, said: “This isn’t about the leisure centre, this is about the residents of Houghton Regis. Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) with their leisure strategy have not adequately provided for the community. That’s it, they’ve not provided. They’ve neglected the rights of the residents.”

“We want solutions. We want accountability from CBC. We want acknowledgement from CBC. We want them to be solution driven and look at ways where the residents of this town have the same access to a sports hall as the residents of Dunstable, as Leighton Buzzard.”

But the council insists that the facilities are “bigger and better”.

Instead of building a sports hall within the centre, the newly-built Houstone School has one that doubles as space for the community to play sports.

Cllr Steven Watkins, the council’s executive member for assets, business and housing, said: “To maximise the local offer, and with future population growth in mind, we have made an agreement with Houstone School so activities can take place in their sports hall. The sports hall is available the majority of the time, including over the school holidays, with the exception of time set aside for the school’s exams.

“We have worked hard to ensure that no local groups are left without a home, including the basketball group, and prioritised those with previous bookings. Other groups are already booked into the new sports hall and we still have slots available for the basketball group, subject to receiving the paperwork we need to confirm their booking. This includes important information such as a compliant safeguarding policy – something we require from any group working with young people.”

But this decision has been criticised by community groups who previously used the old leisure centre sports hall, which is set to be demolished to build a car park.

Dru Spinks said: “We want affordable prices, we want CBC to give instruction to the school to make it affordable to impact their pricing matrix.

“The previous sports hall [had] six badminton courts, approximately 99 operative hours a week that the community could access it; The new sports hall is four badminton courts, about forty hours a week. There’s a huge leisure deficit there. The council just simply will not acknowledge that.”

But the councillor explained: “We are no longer able to provide the significant subsidy they previously enjoyed, but hope that they can continue to work with us at what is still a very competitive rate – one that is set by the school.”

Bruce Hallam, co-chair of Houghton Regis Badminton, added: "All we want is for them to allow us to use the hall, until such time as they build us a new sports hall on this new site that's all we're asking but they ignore us."

Cllr Watkins said: “The new centre, which opened on Saturday, is a multi-million pound investment in Houghton Regis. Over 500 families attended its community fun day over the weekend with huge excitement, and the feedback on the new swimming pools and gym, state of the art group exercise spaces, café and play area was overwhelmingly positive, with many choosing to become members on the day.

Among the protesters were Labour Central Bedfordshire and Houghton Regis Town councillors, and Independent Town and CBC councillors.

Cllr Chloe Alderman, Labour councillor for Houghton East, said: “Labour councillors originally raised the lack of sports hall provision to the previous executive back in 2022. They tried to bring it up in Scrutiny. It’s clear what the problems are thanks to the hard work of people like Dru who won’t give up. It’s up to us as councillors to do something about it. The council needs to prove that it’s listening to the residents of Houghton Regis, following Sport England guidance, and providing the facilities that residents deserve.”

Cllr Watkins continued: “The new centre, which opened on Saturday, is a multi-million pound investment in Houghton Regis. Over 500 families attended its community fun day over the weekend with huge excitement, and the feedback on the new swimming pools and gym, state of the art group exercise spaces, café and play area was overwhelmingly positive, with many choosing to become members on the day.

“It's worth noting that the old leisure centre sports hall was not fully used, with some customers using the sports hall only because other more suitable spaces weren’t available. The new leisure centre provides a much better range of facilities, and all those customers who used the old sports hall but can be better accommodated in the new smaller spaces have already moved to the new centre.

“All in all, the new facilities are bigger and better, marking a huge improvement for leisure facilities in Houghton Regis.”