Possible solution found to preserve the famous iconic dome
Save Oasis Campaign Seeks Sustainable Solutions Not letting themselves become clouded by sentimentality, the Save the Oasis campaign group have set themselves the task of seeking sustainable solutions. Of course they want the dome preserving. But they have full understanding that to keep it, it must function better than it ever has.
And, to that end, with great excitement, they have a possible breakthrough to announce.
The dome under threat – Save Oasis Campaign Seeks Sustainable Solutions
The dome – which forms an integral part of the famous Swindon Oasis Leisure Centre – came under threat recently. The threat occurred when Seven Capital and Swindon Borough Council released a computer-generated image, of what appeared to be new building.
The Save Oasis Swindon campaign questioned why the dome was missing from the plans. In particular when the Council administration had promised a refurbishment of the dome not a demolition.
A spokesman for Save Oasis Swindon said: ‘The council administration told us that the building is not energy efficient, as the pool costs £1,500 a day to heat. We were also told by the head of Swindon Borough Council, Councillor David Renard, that the dome has reached the end of its life.
‘We don’t think that Seven Capital have exhausted every option to preserve the iconic dome. The panels on the dome were only replaced in 2015, some six years ago. The previous panels before that were in place for almost four decades. Swindonians should ask questions about why, in 2015, the heat inefficient dome panels installed . Fast forward six years, and now the developer is saying the building isn’t viable. We can’t sit back and accept that situation.
‘The information we got stated that the current dome panels consist of single-ply polycarbonate sheets, installed on the lightweight aluminium space frame. Further, Seven Capital stated that they have a very low U value. This means that he pool has poor insulation and heat retaining properties.
Set about seeking advice
Undeterred, the campaign group set about getting external, expert advice.
Said campaigner leader Neil, ‘We contacted an historical architecture group who pointed us to engineers that specialise in pool restorations. We explained the current problem with the Oasis dome. To our amazement, they came back with a solution that would enable the iconic dome structure to remain.
Iceni Futures suggested using ‘EFTE pillows’. In essence the bubble type panels the Eden Project uses. The company said they would improve energy efficiency. Further they’re lightweight, so the existing structure could support them. These pillows are a tried and tested solution and would work well at the Oasis.
They even said that the pillows would replicate the appearance of the existing ‘bubble’ type panels present at the Oasis before 2015. They confirmed that the EFTE pillows would be more energy efficient than the current flat polycarbonate sheets. It’s also possible to embed solar cells within them.
It seems that the EFTE solution would have been available in 2015. So they imagine that the flat sheets got chosen due to cost. But at £1,500 a day to heat, it’s definitely a false economy.
‘Iceni Futures promised to work with a structural engineer and the EFTE manufacturer to devise a custom solution for the Oasis. They would calculate the energy improvements and the potential daily heating costs.
Next steps
The Save Oasis Swindon campaign have sent their findings to Swindon Borough Council and Councillor David Renard for consideration. Also to Seven Capital.
Said the campaign: ‘The administration must do more to investigate ways to make the existing dome and building viable. Many people love the Oasis for what it already offers.
“We hope that Seven Capital take this exciting opportunity to work with Iceni Futures and see what it’s possible to achieve at the Oasis. This will enable preservation of the iconic dome structure, regardless of the Historic England listing outcome.’
The spokesman concluded: ‘Labour Councillor Jim Grant has been in fulll support of our plan to save the famous dome. He said this could be the answer we are all looking for. He told us the Labour group are one hundred percent behind it. Our campaign hopes that all the council political parties can sign up to our plan to save the dome. Jim also thanked our campaign and said the people of Swindon should be ever grateful.’
The Save Oasis Swindon campaign, which has almost 2,000 followers on Facebook – and backed by many celebrities. If you want to follow them you’ll find them here: https://www.facebook.com/saveoasis
The recent regeneration received heavy criticism. The Oasis is a symbol of Swindon and is a well-known, treasured landmark. It’s well loved by Swindon residents, and those further afield who travel to Swindon to enjoy the Oasis. You can read more of that here:
Swindon charity appeals for swimmers to make a splash and save lives
Swindon Swimmers Needed to Fundraise Calling all swimmers! If you want to get fit and make a splash for children then one Swindon charity needs your help.
SwimTayka runs drowning prevention programmes around the globe and teaches children to swim. Now they’re looking for people to sign up for the annual Thames Marathon, planned for August 15.
SwimTayka is an official charity partner for the event, and has several free places to give away.
Organised by Henley Swim, the Thames Marathon is a 14km long-distance swim challenge from Henley-on-Thames to Marlow. It’s become one of open water swimming’s most prestigious marathon swims. It’s usually a sell-out. But by entering via SwimTayka swimmers can be sure of a place.
Bryan Avery
How to register for the event
Swimmers can register for a free place through SwimTayka, and commit to fundraising for the charity. Or they can buy a place direct from Henley Swim, but also take the opportunity to fundraise.
With the swimming lakes at Cotswold Water Park about to reopen, there’s plenty of time to train for the event. Although it’s an endurance event it caters both for fast swimmers and those who swim at a more leisurely pace.
Swindonian and keen open water swimmer Bryan Avery, founded SwimTayka in 2017. He started it when he realised how many young lives drowing claims.
‘In the UK we take learning to swim for granted, but this doesn’t happen in many countries,’ said Bryan. ‘Children living near open water are at severe risk of drowning. In fact, drowning is a silent epidemic. It claims an estimated 360,000 lives every year and is the third highest cause of unintentional injury death worldwide. These deaths are both wasted and preventable.
During this pandemic our work has never been more important as people gain respite in open water. And it’s a shame that that they don’t always have the skills they need.
About SwimTakya
SwimTayka runs programmes in locations as far flung as Mozambique, Peru and Brazil. They give free swimming lessons to children and teach them water stewardship, to teach them about caring for the environment.
Bryan said: ‘I set up SwimTayka as I’m driven to help children in low resource communities around the world, learn to swim. I tried to find a charity that already existed that we could support. But I found there was none that focused on swimming and giving free lessons. And so SwimTayka was born!”
The charity started with one project in Huanchaco, northern Peru, partnering with an established NGO based there.
“In a few weeks we had children confident with techniques to prevent drowning and loving every minute of it. Their sheer joy at realising they could swim made it all worthwhile,” Bryan said. ‘But like any charity, we need funds. That’s why we’re appealing for swimmers looking for a challenge who want to take part in the Thames Marathon, to book their place through us, and raise money for SwimTayka in sponsorship.’
Thames Marathon Director of Operations, Juliet Hume, said: “The demand for the Thames Marathon has always been huge. It’s an award-winning event with a reputation for offering a challenging, well-organised and beautiful swim. It’s great we can offer places to support this incredible charity.’
Iconic Swindon Structures Controversy ranges in Swindon as I bash out this blog, around the Oasis Pleasure Dome. A term bandied about around this leisure centre is ‘iconic’. Thus I thought I’d have a look at the term – what it means – and what it means to Swindon.
So, iconic design then is something recognisable and memorable. Thus, it’s irrefutable that The Oasis, warrants the description.
Okay – it’s a complex situation, with many ins and outs that I’m not going into it all here – it’s not the place. But I do have to mention something that has incurred the wrath of many, including me – for all manner of reasons. Namely this:
Aside from the fact that this CGI shoved out at the start of this week resembles a gasometer – and that’s bad enough – it misses two important points.
1. The Oasis and the dome are synonymous – and the ‘iconic’ part of the whole thing is its very form: the dome.
2. The term Oasis means: ‘a fertile spot in a desert where you find water.’
All elements of the Oasis combined to meet the description of a fertile spot in a desert where you find water. The desert part being the urban sprawl in which it sits.
So, the much-loved dome let sunshine stream in and blue skies canopy bathers, giving them a sense of being outside. And all this decades before Center Parcs came our way.
Aside from the dome itself, what made the eponymous leisure pool so famous and so worthy of its name was the carefully planned, tropical themed interior – right down to real banana plants. It all combined to create a totally tropical paradise experience.
Accessibility factors
The other factor making this pool special is its accessibility. This is a super important point that’s being overlooked I fear.
The Oasis, in its current form, is the only leisure/fun pool for MILES – the nearest being Bracknell. It’s also the only fully accessible facility for children and those with mobility issues.
Its lagoon shape, that you can simply walk into as you’d walk into the sea itself, is perfect for families and the less mobile. There is nothing else like it in Swindon – or for miles around.
My ire
So why am I so irked? Aside from suffering from SBC CGI overload that is? *heaves heavy sigh*
Well, the image above shows what may well be a perfectly fine leisure centre. I‘m cynical about that – but let’s, for the sake of argument, assume it does.
It still misses the iconic point by a wide margin. It also misses ‘The Oasis’ point. Which is of course … the tropical part.
What that image shows is not refurbishing ‘an iconic leisure venue that has brought joy to residents and visitors for four decades’.
There’s nothing iconic about it – and, unless it intends to recreate the tropical theme, there’s nothing oasis about it either. Thus, unless this new plan incorporates that tropical theme, at the very least, it’s not even the Oasis Mark II. What it is, in fact, is The North Star leisure centre.
So this is, aside from all the other stuff going on, a disingenuous at best and at worst … plain dishonest, misrepresentation. It purports to be a restoration when in fact it’s raze-it-and-start-all-over-again!
I’d have more respect for it and SBC if they weren’t making this out to be something it’s not. Do they think we won’t notice? Surely not? That would be both arrogant and insulting …
A response to Cllr Renard’s Swindon Advertiser article on 18/3/2021
A response to Cllr Renard
Dear Cllr Renard
Before I start I wish to clarify that when I use the terms YOU/YOUR etc I’m not necessarily referring to you as a person. I’m using ‘you’ as a metonymy for the body for which you work (the cabinet and/or the Conservative group – not however many other employees are in those offices) and which you represent. I trust you’ll appreciate the difference where it’s applicable.
Attitude is all
Over the last couple of days, I’ve written much about the Oasis. But what has driven my fingers back to my keyboard in a mixture of astonishment, bewilderment and fury, is your comment inthis morning’s Swindon Advertiser.
Shining like a super-trooper from that piece – indeed from the very heading itself: Oasis dome is at the end of its life – it’s time for a modern leisure centre –is, it seems to me, a lamentable lack of humility and an awful lot of paternalistic, patronising arrogance.
What that heading, and the contents of your piece, scream to me, is ‘daddy knows best. The medicine is nasty but it’s good for you’.
Said Cllr Renard:
‘I for one, will be keeping my fingers crossed Historic England does not grant it listed status because it is time to give the Oasis a new lease of life and many more families treasured memories.’
Seriously? What leader of a council that purports to care about its town’s heritage would even say such a thing?!
Are you so completely out of touch with those you’re supposed to be serving? Whether we voted for you or not!? I’m speechless! Well … almost … That’s a simply appalling thing to say – and an excuse!
And the whole point, the one that you’ve missed with such brilliance, is that the ‘plan’ (I use that word with reluctance) you’ve put forward takes away the very thing that makes the Oasis the Oasis.
It’s plain dishonest to put it forward as giving ‘the Oasis a new lease of life and many more families treasured memories’ when it’s nothing of the sort.
That’s a plan for a leisure centre not the Oasis. Let’s be clear on that. I’ve already banged on about that so no need to over-egg that particular pudding.
Who says?
Who says it’s time for a modern leisure centre? Apart from you because that fits your particular narrative I mean.
Where is the hard evidence that the dome is environmentally and economically unviable? By which I mean unbiased reports from such organisations as the Twentieth Century Society,RIBA and Historic England. Or any other credible organisation that could produce reliable evidence of what you’re all too willing to claim.
Show that to Swindonians who don’t want to lose what matters about the Oasis – its very form – and they might listen. Show – don’t tell. PLEASE.
Playing devils’ advocate
So, for the sake of argument, let’s imagine that you do have hard evidence of the unviability of the dome and you genuinely can’t make it work, some humility, some regret, some acknowledgement of feeling and desires of your citizens wouldn’t come amiss.
How about, instead of telling us that it’s time for a new leisure centre, you preface presentations of that ilk with something like:
‘We appreciate how much the dome/insert name of heritage asset in question, means to you. We’ve explored every option to the Nth degree, it simply doesn’t add up and this is why …
And we’re sorry. We regret that BUT – we can do this instead ….‘
But no – you go all didactic and TELL us what’s good for us.And worse – you do it all the time.
Sorry really is the hardest word it seems.
Yours,
In increasing sadness and increasing frustration – a Swindon enthusiast.
PS: Going off topic a bit: I am prepared to accept with good grace a dome-less facility if I’m assured that all avenues have been explored to save the dome. But have they?Therein lies the rub eh?
Video here, by Karl Webb, showing the Oasis and the celebrity support for the campaign: https://fb.watch/4i9oofREml/
Now I feel moved to put furious fingers to my keyboard on the topic of the Swindon Oasis Dome. The cause of my ire? The appearance of the image below on my social media stream this morning. I nearly choked on my first black coffee of the day!
2, 3 and 4 in that list have instantly recognisable outlines. They’re the muse for artists of every genre. No 3 inspired a song (allegedly) and No 4 inspired a pop group’s name. I can’t see the above doing any of that can you?
This does though:
No appreciation for what you have
What we see in in that image SBC is proof, if any proof were needed, that you have not one iota of appreciation for, nor understanding of, the treasures you have in their charge. The neglect of the public art being a big case in point and the West Swindon sculpture walk in particular.
In my very cynical moments (Cynical? Me?!) I wonder if there’s not shades of the Festival of Britain going on there. Y’know, when the incoming Conservative government demolished the Skylon with unseemly haste …but I digress.
What we also see is the contempt that you hold for the views and the desires of the people you purport to serve. The arrogance is breathtaking.
THIS thing that looks a like a Didcot power station reject – is NOT what Save Oasis Swindon want. And I’d venture to suggest that it’s not what most of Swindon’s people want either.
If you think that ‘this’ bathes you in any kind of a ‘oh-look-at-our-amazing-plan-for-the-oasis-aren’t we-great’ sort of light you’d perhaps best sack your spin doctor. #justsaying
The point missed
The whole point of the Oasis is its very form: the dome! The Dome is the Oasis. And the Oasis is the dome. One is synonymous with the other. Any restoration that takes away the dome IS NOT a restoration of the Oasis. It’s merely a pool.
It’s a building with architectural and cultural significance. It also has pop history significance. It’s iconic and it’s a Swindon landmark. More of all that on the aforementioned blog. The above would be ‘any pool’. No one wants ‘any pool’. What we want is the Oasis as it is.
The other factor making this pool special is its accessibility. This is a super important point that’s being overlooked I fear.
The Oasis is not only the only leisure/fun pool for MILES – the nearest being Bracknell – it’s also the only fully accessible facility for children and those with mobility issues.
Its lagoon shape, that you can simply walk into as you’d walk into the sea itself, is perfect for families and the less mobile. There is nothing else like it in Swindon – or for miles around.
So much lost
Swindon has lost so much. Don’t let’s add this to the list. While I very much welcome the news of the funding for the Health Hydro, one does not substitute for the other! The cultural significance of Milton Road baths cannot be overstated. And I’ll back to the hilt all moves to save/refurbish etc that facility.
But the Oasis does matter too. For very different reasons but it matters nonetheless.
‘Swindon Borough Council has released an architectural drawing of the new multi-million pound SevenCapital plan to transform The Oasis into a regional waterpark. But they have warned that the plans could be scuppered if an application to Historic England to give the site listed status is approved, a claim that is disputed by the Save Oasis Swindon campaign.’
Well … to paraphrase the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies – they would say that wouldn’t they?
And from the Save the Oasis campaign:
“Historic England reassured MP Robert Buckland very recently in discussions, that if the Oasis becomes a listed building, then they will work with him and any developer to make sure that a renovation can happen. This was posted on Robert Buckland’s own Facebook page on 16th February 2021.
“So why are the Council continuing to suggest that approval of the listing application will scupper refurbishment, resulting in the permanent demise of the Oasis? Why don’t they reach out to Historic England and work with them in a constructive way? We fear that the listing could be used as a get out card for both Seven Capital and Swindon Borough Council, if they don’t find a way forward. That is unacceptable.’
The VERY worst thing about this apparent plan for me is that …
… Aside from the cluelessness about why the Oasis matters is the dishonesty. And the arrogance.
Had you explored all avenues and found nothing possible SBC and you’d then said: ‘look, we’re really sorry but we can’t save the Oasis but we can do this instead’ then that would at least be honest. But that’s not the case is it?!
And instead you’re dressing this up as you saving the iconic Oasis for future generation when it’s nothing of the sort. This is the computer-generated equivalent of a pat on the head and a lollipop.
Not forgetting the blaming of Historic England for wanting to list the building and using that as a reason why not. Oh PLEASE! I’m not an architecture expert but I do know that heritage/listed buildings up and down the country have been regenerated with great success. And on that matter see this: https://swindonian.me/2021/03/25/oasis-campaign-seeks-sustainable-solutions/
