There have been fresh calls for investment into Chippenham's 1980s leisure centre.

The Olympiad has been called 'run down' by the town councillor for Monkton Park, in which it sits.

Wiltshire Council has ploughed £1m into the site in recent years but users say the facilities have gone backwards, with the old flumes that were a key attraction of the pool when the centre first opened being removed.

Cllr Nick Murry, who also chairs the Chippenham Neighbourhood Plan, has been consistently calling for more investment in the Olympiad.

He said: “The Olympiad leisure centre should be one of Chippenham’s best community assets but it has been allowed to become run down over the years, whilst other Wiltshire towns have received large amounts of investment, including in creating new community campuses.”

Cllr Murry explained that although the Olympiad needs serious upgrading "it is essential it isn’t knocked down and replaced by something on the periphery of the town". He says his view is shared by many of his fellow councillors.

He said: “The Olympiad is easily accessible for the majority of Chippenham’s residents. It brings people into the town and serves multiple functions for people’s health and well-being.

"I would certainly not want to see it replaced with something that drew people away from the town centre and which they had to drive to.”

Wiltshire Council says it has fixed the roof and upgraded the centre’s electrical systems in recent years.

Cllr Murry said he was pleased to see investment in renewable energy generation on the site, and that this would provide significant cost savings for the council and taxpayers for years to come, but pointed out that the leisure centre’s facilities had not received the investment they needed.

He added: “Given the substantial quantity of Community Infrastructure Levy payment collected from the housing development in and around Chippenham in recent years, it would seem fair that a larger proportion of this be re-invested in the town, including in our leisure facilities.”  

Wiltshire Council cabinet member for Leisure Ian Blair-Pilling said in response to questions of when improvement will come: “The council has invested over £1m in The Olympiad to upgrade the electrical system, install solar panels and carry out works to repair the roof.

“As part of the ongoing review of our leisure and library facilities we are in the process of scoping out the improvement works required at sites across Wiltshire to understand how we proceed. Once the review has taken place we will then be in a position to develop improvement plans and prioritise any work required.”

Councillor for Pewsham Clare Cape said she would welcome investment in the leisure centre too.  

And councillor for Sheldon Adrian Foster said he felt time had to be given to the council to make changes but hoped it would follow up on promises of improvement.