Bath leisure centre is a place that many parents and carers will find themselves gravitating towards with their children from babies through to teen – first there’s softplay and swimming, then trampoline parties, sports and bowling.

The leisure centre is located in the centre of Bath and can be accessed on foot, bus or cycle but also has a large car park underneath and around the building. Car parking is subsidised for customers of the leisure centre who arrive by car.

I guess we can all agree that it’s a good thing to walk, wheel or cycle for short journeys, also, or maybe even especially when going to a leisure centre to take part in some physical activity. 

Cycle access to the leisure centre is not optimal, either along the busy North Parade road or along the traffic-free riverside path, where you’ve got a flood defence to get over with no ramp available. People using larger or adapted cycles, including as mobility aid for disabled people, aren’t able to access the leisure centre from the riverside path at all.

Back in March 2022, a local parent and colleague at the time, Ruth Hand, got in touch with me and together we decided to write a letter to Cllr Dine Romero, then Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, and Cllr Sarah Warren, Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency and Sustainable Travel.

In our letter, we highlighted both access and cycle storage issues.

In April 2022, both Cabinet Members acknowledged our message and a few messages followed but no action was taken.

In November 2022, we wrote to them again asking for an update. 

In January 2023, the Cabinet Members got back to us and it included some promising plans including installing a dropped kerb at the pedestrian entrance along North Parade as well as installing more cycle racks on the car park level, with the caveat that funding would need to be identified for this.

In February 2023, the dropped kerb was installed, which helped greatly with accessing the street-level cycle parking in front of the entrance.

Since then, the cycle parking at this location is often at capacity, especially around 4 and 5pm on weekdays, including lots of families using cargo bikes to carry their children on.

In May 2023, I got elected as Bath and North East Somerset Councillor.

…. More emails followed, this time sending them as a Councillor, and then a meeting with officers and GLL staff on site….

Fast forward to April 2024: one single sheffield stand and a so called ‘toaster rack’ with four stands, offering parking for up to 10 cycles, was installed at the car park level at Bath leisure centre.

See the before and after:

I am very pleased to conclude that there is now a decent number of cycle parking spaces available both at street level and car park level ticking the following boxes:

• under cover
• near entrance
• fully accessible (no kerbs to hop onto)
• suitable for larger and different-sized cycles such as adapted cycles and cargo bikes

Accessibility is still an unresolved issue though, especially for disabled people using their cycle as mobility aid. They may not be able to use the new cycle parking because there are steps to get up to the entrance. I will keep working with residents, GLL and the Council to improve this.

The new cycle parking doesn’t score top points in terms of security because while footfall is high during daytime hours, it is otherwise a pretty dark spot with limited visibility and no CCTV. Security is a very important issue and bike theft rates are high, especially for e-bikes.

Needless to say, I will continue to campaign to improve cycle storage facilities and access at the leisure centre.