Opened in May 1988 by Diana Princess of Wales, Splash has been an incredibly popular facility ever since. With its unique beach style layout incorporating a Wave Machine and Slide, the centre provides hours of fun for family members of all ages.

Currently families travel from all over Norfolk to visit Splash, simply because the above features make it unlike anything their local swimming pool can offer.

In recent years however, it has become clear that the centre is in need of either refurbishment or replacement. The centre was given a 25 year shelf life upon opening, and has now passed the 30 year mark. Despite this, the building itself still remains structurally sound and the pool is still loved and enjoyed by visitors each year.

Norfolk County Council shocked everyone in December 2017 by approving a £10.7m replacement for Splash which incredibly, fails to cater for the very visitors who have supported Splash during its 31 year life. The new design features no beach style layout, wave machine or slide. While it does feature a ‘Splash Pad’ which the council say caters for children - we strongly disagree with this - since the splash pad is will only be suitable for young children, and is of little use to older children and adults. Therefore the ‘family fun’ of Splash will be gone.

Then in July 2019 it was announced that the project would cost a further £2 million pounds, which the council have reluctantly agreed to.

We view this project as a disaster waiting to happen for the town of Sheringham. Families will no longer travel from all over Norfolk to visit, since it will offer nothing they can’t get at their local pool. This will not only mean decreased revenue, but will also have a severe knock on effect for the town and it’s traders.

The reason given for the lack of beach style layout, wave machine and slide within the new facility is that in order to afford the new centre, funding is required from Sport England, who will only support a traditional style pool without the fun elements.

We believe that in order to save this local gem, the council should abandon the Sport England funding, abandon the plans for the new centre, and put the money instead towards refurbishing the existing Splash centre.

The refurbishment plan would include re-tiling the entire pool, refurbishing the slide, installing new energy efficient pool heating systems to bring running costs down, re-opening the centre’s original cafe which closed down some 15 years ago, and crucially renovating the building itself with renewed exterior cladding.

As the creator of this petition, I have visited Splash all my life, and always dreamed of taking my children there some day, as my Aunt took me for the first time when I was 5 years old. I care greatly about saving the centre.

We must act now to save the centre before it’s too late, because once it’s gone it’s gone. The money will never be available to put it back again.

Once it’s gone it’s gone.