What next for the River Park site as new leisure centre plans progress?

The centre on Gordon Road will become redundant when the new sport and leisure centre is built on playing fields at Bar End, subject to planning permission.

If things go smoothly the city council believes work on the new centre could start in early in 2019 with completion in 2021.

City council leader Caroline Horrill said: “I like the idea of a cultural arts use. It is next to the School of Art and near the city centre.”

An IPG, informal policy group, will be set up in September, said Cllr Horrill, to hear ideas before a report is prepared for Cabinet.

Interested parties will be able to tell city councillors what they would like to see on the site.

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The tennis courts, artificial pitches, mainly used for football, and the indoor bowls centre are unaffected by the plans.

Letters to the Chronicle have suggested a decent-sized concert hall, something the city lacks.

Keith Leaman, chairman of the City of Winchester Trust, the city’s main civic society, when asked what the preservation watchdogs thought, said he agreed with Cllr Horrill: “We know there is the possibility of it being considered for the site of a museum for the Anglo-Saxon period.

“Other would like to see a Turner-Sims type concert hall. Whether that is economically viable, I don’t know.”

The Turner Sims hall at Southampton University has a capacity for around 500 seats.

Mr Leaman said he would prefer something cultural rather than houses.

“If you look at what the city has to offer, the cathedral, the Great Hall, Winchester College, it seems to lack a few of the things that make it a cultural centre. Visitors expect more when they come here and are slightly disappointed by what else there is.”

The growth of the city’s student population in recent years has made a cultural centre more viable.

• What do you think? Write to letters@hampshirechronicle.co.uk.