The campaigners battling for a full restoration of the Oasis

The leader of the Save Oasis Swindon campaign explains the organisation's aims - and its longstanding love for the iconic location

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Neil Robinson leads the Save Oasis Swindon Campaign, which wants to see the complete restoration of the iconic facility that closed its doors in November 2020. A consultation into plans submitted by SevenCapital to reopen the centre recently ended. Save Oasis Swindon opposes the plan, chiefly because it does not include a sports hall. Here Mr Robinson makes an impassioned plea for his organisation's vision to become a reality.

by Neil Robinson

The Save Oasis Swindon Campaign has faced a long battle. Nearly five years have now passed since the iconic leisure centre closed its doors for the final time.

It began when the developer, SevenCapital, wanted to demolish the dome and replace it with a new roof. However, it transpired that the Oasis pool and dome were the last surviving major leisure fun pool of its type left in the UK.

This soon gained a lot of traction, attracting attention from the Architects Journal, Twentieth Century Society and even Manchester news, due to the Oasis band link. It soon became apparent that this was an iconic Swindon landmark that needed to be saved, so we threw our full support behind the listing application for the dome and pool.

I was a regular user of the Oasis, often using the swimming pool with family, friends, and even swimming solo in the deep end with the wave machine on. It was a fantastic workout that enabled me to stay fit for my job. I also learned to swim there in the early 90s, in the small kids' pool. I used it right up until it closed. I used it twice when it reopened after the first lockdown, in 2020. My final swim there was August 2020.

I was so sad when it closed, because at the time my daughter was only one year old, and we had only taken her to the Oasis a few times. She originally hated the water, but soon started to love it, including the wave machine. I wanted my mum to come down and watch from the balcony, but the balcony was closed off in Summer 2020. They put the reason to social distancing, but later found out the real reason was because the dome was leaking and the balcony was flooded with puddles of water.