Entertainment Swindon

Campaign group ‘Save Oasis Swindon came out today to protest against the potential demolition of the Oasis sports hall. The campaign group that gathered at the iconic venue this afternoon (Sunday 25th February) which is fought to have been responsible for giving the name to the famous indie rock band Oasis are responsible for saving the iconic venue set to re-open again on 1st January 2026 on the 50th Anniversary of the centres opening in 1976 have now focused their energy on saving the sports hall.

Recently the residents of Swindon found out that two leisure operators are bidding to take on the iconic building once it has been refurbished by leaseholders SevenCapital as part of a deal with Swindon Borough Council.

For several month now however show that none of the bids have any plans for the sports hall facilities. The sports hall that during its heyday also served as a concert and live events venue which saw some huge bands play live at the Oasis, including Stereophonics, Status Quo, Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, Alice Cooper, Sugababes, Pet Shop Boys and Kings of Leon along with comedians, including Roy Chubby Brown & Jack Whitehall as well as sporting events such as boxing.

In a clear message to its potential operators, Save Oasis Swindon campaign group are demanding the sports hall be saved, either by renovating or by knocking down and re-building, urging them to consider keeping the hall.

The two potential leisure operators interested in the Oasis have shown their plans to be far short of what campaigners are asking for. The ‘Better’ plan is to have a swimming pool, gym cafe and ten-pin bowling and the ‘Everyone Active’ plan has a swimming pool, changing rooms, a fitness studio, gym and cafe.

With a well established ten-pin bowling alley already in Shaw Ridge and another ten-pin bowling alley opening soon in Greenbridge, the plans by ‘Better’ seem poorly planned with little thought and the short sightedness of both operators not looking to include a sports/concert hall is turning a gift horse revenue stream from concerts featuring big artists that have shown in the past to sell out at the Oasis venue.

A town the size of Swindon not having a large venue for concerts is a sad loss for the economy of the town which is in much need of revitalisation from years of neglect by SBC under both Tories and now Labour.

Speaking to SBC, their answer is that any loss of the hall would be mitigated by building another facility elsewhere, which seems financially costly when there is already a venue in place at the Oasis. The SBC seem to be putting the people of Swindon’s wishes to the back of the line, behind glory projects such as the controversial ‘Bus Boulevard’ and the miss-managed at best recycling debacle that has caused chaos in the Swindon Borough over the past couple months.

The campaign group have approached the CEO of an unrelated leisure chain, who it says told them: “A sports hall should wash its face financially, staffing is minimal and income is flexible, but you may wish to limit opening during day time to keep costs down. But far better to keep what you have than decide you could do with one later.

Despite these strong objections by Save Oasis Swindon who are also back by national bodies such as Sports England who believe the Oasis must also retain its dry-side facilities, the venue is set to have the sports hall demolished.

The lack of listening to residents of Swindon shows how disenfranchised and disconnected the SBC is from the residents of Swindon who are putting up with continued substandard services by a council that continues to cut back on services, whilst confirming they will be raising Council Tax whilst taking out a loan that will consume 60% of the council tax increase paid for by the residents of Swindon it seems that the Labour led councils decision to take out a loan and increase council tax is what seems certainly from the outside what is keeping the town from bankruptcy. Labour at local and national level have always had the policy of borrow, borrow, borrow, kicking the inevitable down the road and making the inevitable worse than dealing with the issue in the present.

A representative for the campaign group recently as well as the need to keep dry-side facilities, backed by Sports England said: “Not only to future proof the viability of the site, but most importantly to keep pace with the health and wellbeing requirements for a town of Swindon’s enormous size.

“A planning application is due to be submitted soon, and the Save Oasis campaign will continue to fight with Sports England to urge the potential new Oasis operators to either restore the current hall or build a new one.

“Swindon residents demand it and they deserve it.”

We tried speaking to Labour councillors in the SBC and received no comment.