Skip to content

Revamp to White Horse Leisure and Tennis Centre reception complete

Published on Friday 29 November 2024

A £160,000 full refurbishment of the reception at the White Horse Leisure and Tennis Centre in Abingdon completed this month.

Leisure centre customers will be welcomed this week by a shiny new reception area – which has new flooring, new concierge desks for enquiries and customer services, and a modern automated gated entry system. The new gated automatic entry system also provides enhanced safety and security on the site. 

The centre’s gym also benefited from a recent investment in new gym equipment, including treadmills, bikes, weights and resistance machines, which has started to appear in the gym this week. Earlier this year, new sand-based Artificial Turf Pitch (ATP) were added at four tennis courts at the centre.

There is further good news for the customer facilities on site, with work starting in December and completing in the new year refurbishing the toilets next to the café, to create two new family-friendly unisex toilets.  

Cllr Sue Caul, Vale of White Horse District Council’s Cabinet member for Leisure Facilities, said: “The revamped reception is quite a transformation! The new space is modern and welcoming – and importantly, with enhanced security with the new gates. I’m so pleased we’ve been able to invest in this enhancement of the leisure centre environment. It is also really good to see work will be starting soon on improving the toilet facilities near the café to make them better for everyone.”

Cllr Bethia Thomas, Leader of Vale of White Horse District Council, added: “Providing good quality, affordable access to leisure facilities is incredibly important for the wellbeing of our communities – so I’m also pleased we’ve also invested in the new gym equipment at this centre and at Farringdon and Wantage Leisure Centres. Watch this space for our investment in energy saving measures coming soon!”

Andrew Griffiths, Better’s General Manager at White Horse Leisure and Tennis Centre, said: “These improvements will make the journey for customers much easy and will allow a faster entrance into the centre. The centre now has an improved look and feel with the recent investments creating great facilities for the local community. I would like to thank the customers and users of the centres for their patience whilst these works have been taking place.”

In addition to all the above improvements, work will get underway soon to install the multi-million-pound major energy-saving work at the leisure centre which is expected to reduce consumption in excess of 2.6m kWh annually. This will involve the installation of solar panels and air source heat pumps with upgrade plant. Once completed, the measures are expected to contribute to the reduction of the council’s overall carbon emissions by more than 25 per cent. This work is expected to be completed by August 2025 and normal service will hopefully be maintained throughout the works.

Find out more about the centre on the White Horse Leisure and Tennis Centre or by following their Facebook page here.