Even the old pool was a feckup by our wonderful council.

It was meant to be Olympic sized so they could use it for official competitions. Only the idiots who built it forgot to factor in that the pool had to be tiled, and as a result, once it WAS tiled, it was slightly too short.

I wonder how much it cost us all for them to come up with that acronym?

An arts centre/concert hall/theatre would be a much better addition to Wigan, in my opinion. And it would make money.

If St Helens can get 52 weeks out of that tip, the Theatre Royal, and Warrington can out of the Parr Hall/Pyramid, I'm sure we can.

I'm quite happy payin 25 quid a month at dw. The pool is nice and clean and never busy at the times I go. The changing rooms dont quite fit my needs but I can live with that. and its free parking right at the front doors...

I was looking into joining at this new place but like people have said parkings a problem. For me I would end up spending double a month what I am now simply through having to park my car nearby. Certainly not leaving my car at the lower end of scholes..... no matter how much of a heap of junk it is

And the timetable for the pool puts me off, I like going for a swim when I feel like it. Not when a timetable tells me I can.

The format of the building was a result of the grants available from central government. So don't be too critical of the council. I fought hard to retain a 50m pool in the borough but it was a non-starter because there were no grants for that! For that reason I do blame the council. We even proposed that they look at putting a 50m pool facility at Robin Park where there is parking but they wanted the free dosh and so the new town centre facility was the result. A short term financially driven venture!

Definatley.

There is genuine demand for an arts / performance centre in the town and has been for as long as i can remember and as you say its something that would make money and more importantly be of great benefit to the people of Wigan.

As for the design of the building itself what is the obssesion with that horrible plastic clading that they seem to put on many new buildings? - its going to look terrible in ten years time.

What they should do is sell it to a builder, tell him he can't knock it down then close up shop for a long bank holiday weekend and hey presto.

I was one of the first batch of swimmers that left Wigan Wasp to join Wigan Scheme of Excellence all them years ago when it was introduced. Many a good memories, especially when I broke the record for the pool at my age group. I often wonder what or who held the records when they demolished the International pool.

Ridiculous as it sounds, it's entirely possible that the council won't have sold the building because they're not allowed to.

Several council buildings in St Helens were, apparently, donated to them by the Pilkington family with a specific covenant stating that they were to be used only by the council, and cannot be used for anything else.

That said, the government can do what they want - I'm sure a rule change here or a new law somewhere or other can eradicate such things. I mean, you would think, wouldn't you, that getting that part of town looking the part would take some form of priority.

But no. Let's waste £200m+ on building a red and black box in the middle of town instead.

Surely the 'true cost' is infact the initial outlay plus interest on repayments? It's no different to how finance is raised on most other commercial developments with future income factored in to counterbalance finance expenses.

FWIW I've no great objection to the place, the wife has joined but I won't be. Though I tend to use gyms mainly to do weights, the wet centre is usually the relaxing part at the end of a sesh. A multi-use pool with dozens of folk gawping at the side doesn't tick the box for me.

Surely they can build something on the land that incorporates the buildings still there (done up as best they can obv) in the same way Arsenal did with the marble halls at Highbury.

Looking at the layout of the 'Old Town Hall' if converted right it would make pretty decent sized Theatre.

Not certain about that. You'd be suprised at how much space you actually need for a theatre. It's not just the place you sit to watch the show, you also have front of house and box-officing areas, bar areas, lighting & sound booth, then you have to have a sufficient stage to house what you want to house, with a fly-tower above, space for dressing rooms, green room, space for curtain tracks, fly works, electrics, workshop etc etc etc. For me, the only way to do it justice, would be to knock down Francos, and use the entire plot of land, but again, no parking...