New Swindon council still plans to reopen Oasis centre

Plans to reopen the Oasis Centre in Swindon will go ahead under the town's new council.

Councillor Jim Robbins, the new leader of Swindon Borough Council, recently held his first meeting with Seven Capital, the company hoping to rebuild the centre, which closed in 2020.

The plans include maintaining the main pool area and the listed dome.

Seven Capital plans to cover the dome with a new skin of the type used at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

The current plan to reopen the Oasis was set in motion under the previous Conservative administration.

The centre has been closed since October 2020 when it shut after being briefly open between the first and second Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.

When it closed for the second lockdown the operator Better said it could not make enough money from running it and said it would not re-open.

Seven Capital put forward a plan to rebuild the centre entirely, without the famous dome, but that was withdrawn when Historic England listed the dome and pool area- meaning it cannot be demolished.

That listing was opposed by the company and the Conservative administration running Swindon Borough Council at the time.

Mr Robbins said: "As an administration we have inherited this situation and it is now up to us to fix it.

"There is a lot of work still to do with Seven Capital as there are significant legal and financial challenges we need to work through.

"We also need to ensure that the Oasis is sustainable to run, so it can be enjoyed by families for many years to come."

Seven Capital also has planning permission to build an indoor ski slope on land just across the road from the Oasis, nicknamed Snoasis.

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