'It's just too expensive': Families blast cost of swimming at new-look Splashes

A new Medway Council-run leisure centre has been blasted by critics as being unaffordable with high prices putting off families.

Transcript

00:00It's Medway's brand new leisure centre, but families say it's just too expensive.

00:06Corsington Park opened this summer after the previous site was deemed structurally unsound.

00:12Reading residents had been waiting a long time for the Splash's replacement,

00:16but this half term many parents would like their children to be using these facilities.

00:20But at £45 for a family of four, they say that sinks too deep into their pockets.

00:26But at that price I think you're going to be scaring more people away

00:30and in the long term you're going to be making a loss.

00:35I have been going to Sheerness Swimming Pool which is Islay Sheppey,

00:39Swale Council and you can go there and stay there for 90 minutes at least

00:46and that is only just under £20.

00:49When it first opened, when they first redeveloped it we thought it was going to be for the community

00:53so they've redeveloped it for the community and I don't know many people who have been there

00:57so we'd like to go there, it's around the corner from where we are.

01:00The centre has a range of membership options which the council says provides good value

01:06and that will give you access to the gym and lane swimming.

01:09They have family holiday swim sessions where children are a pound with a full paying adult.

01:15It doesn't give access to the slides.

01:18But if you look on the council website for the fun pool, there are lots of spaces still available.

01:23It feels like this is a facility that's only for the wealthy of Medway to use.

01:28I think we have to call on the Medway council to look at their pricing ticket

01:33and really push it, put it into the marketing context.

01:36If you're running this as a pure business and you're only filling up a third of your capacity with customers

01:41you have to look at your pricing modelling and see what needs to work.

01:44In a statement the authority says 2,000 people have signed up for membership so far

01:49and they continue to review their programmes and welcome feedback.

01:53Costing a little less than £25 million to build,

01:57residents understand that the council needs to make that money back

02:01but users hope the authority will reconsider their pricing

02:04so the investment doesn't go down the drain.

02:07Gabriel Morris in Raynham.