RESIDENTS in Wantage got a glimpse of plans for an £18m new leisure centre.

The new facility is set to be built on land next to Wantage Health Centre on Mably Way by 2020.

Vale of White Horse District Council leader Matthew Barber has pledged to invest the funding in the local authority’s latest budget.

Most of the cash is expected to come out of loans which the council will repay with contributions from housing developers building in the town.

Among residents inspecting plans for the new centre yesterday were pensioners Alistair Reid and his wife Eleanor Reid.

Also taking a look were Luke Cheshire, 18, and Liam Kay, 17.

Health centre GPs and managers previous fought and defeated plans to build a private nursing home on that land because they said their surgeries needed room to expand but Mr Barber said he ‘had not heard any concerns raised by the health centre’ about the leisure centre plan.

The new leisure centre, he said, would be ‘modern and up-to-date’ with a new swimming pool, but he said that while his leisure team were still designing the facility it was too early to say ‘exactly how many tennis or badminton courts’ it would have.

The new centre is designed to help meet the needs of the growing population in addition to the existing Wantage Leisure Centre on Portway.

This was where council officers showed off plans for the new centre to residents.

Council leaders said more detailed plans for the town’s second leisure centre would be confirmed later this year.