A leisure centre in Southampton will be developed into a community hub to improve residents’ skills, health and wellbeing.
The leader of the city council said the long-term vision for St Mary’s Leisure Centre was at the heart of the authority’s ‘community prevention’ transformation programme.
Around £2million of capital investment has been set aside for the site in St Mary’s Road, which will be renamed St Mary’s Community Centre in the future.
Cllr Lorna Fielker gave details on the project after questions from Conservative opposition members about why this money could not have been used to increase the value of office building One Guildhall Square before it was sold.The Labour leader of the council said: “Our plan is to develop it (St Mary’s Leisure Centre) as a hub which is part of our community prevention transformation programme.
“It is a focus on solutions within communities so people can build their capabilities, skills and improve their overall health and wellbeing.
“This work is really important for us to do to reduce future demand on us as a council because what we know for a fact is that there is a rising need out there because people are not fit and healthy, and that rising need is very expensive to us as a local authority in terms of providing social care and to our local NHS services.”
Discussing the centre’s importance in the future at the council meeting on July 16, Cllr Fielker said: “We need to provide prevention services and what we do know is in that particular area of the city, people will go to St Mary’s Community Centre in order to access those.
