FITNESS fans in have been urged one last time to demand a better new leisure centre plans, as the council behind them forges ahead with development.

Vale of White Horse alderman and former councillor Joyce Hutchinson has said residents could still get a better version of the proposed Wantage and Grove centre if they demand it.

Mrs Hutchinson says she and others believe the new £18.8m centre being proposed by Vale of White Horse District Council's cabinet needs to be bigger to serve a growing population.

But she was speaking after the cabinet last week signed off the proposed designs, and the deadline for councillors opposed to 'call in' the decision was 5pm last night.

The Vale's leisure team have also now submitted the first planning application for the scheme – to create a new road junction onto the proposed site off Mably Way.

Mrs Hutchinson said: "In my experience, if enough people make enough noise about it, dates go out of the window.

"The officers' report to the cabinet is based on 624 responses to a consultation about the plans out of a population of 22,000.

"No one is saying we don't want a leisure centre and no one is saying Mably Way isn't the right place for it, but what we're saying is the building is too small."

She urged anyone who felt strongly about the issue to email their local Vale councillor.

Mrs Hutchinson first raised objections to the final leisure centre designs earlier this month.

She pointed out to the Vale cabinet that when Abingdon’s White Horse Tennis and Leisure Centre was built in 2011, the population was 36,000 and the centre was built with 8,892sq m of facilities.

However, she went on, the current housing planned for Wantage and Grove is due to bring the population to 34,000 in the next 15 years, but the new leisure centre being planned is just 4,646sq m.

The Vale cabinet has said it was happy there was 'strong support' for its plans and is now moving ahead with the aim of opening in 2020.

The 'core offering' being proposed includes a 25-metre, six-lane pool, a 'learner pool', sports hall equivalent to four badminton courts and an artificial grass pitch.

There would also be a climbing wall, health and fitness areas and a coffee shop.

Meanwhile, one resident has already objected to the first planning application for the road junction.

Jason Martin, who lives in Mably Grove off Mably Way, said he and others on the estate would be adversely affected by the extra traffic on the road and the noise of it.

Members of public can see the full application at whitehorsedc.gov.uk using reference number P17/V2898/FUL and comment until November 22.