Anyone who’s played at Wimbledon Park Sports Centre, will be aware of the capacity issue at the centre’s car park.

Though the car park should be for centre users coming to play sports, or use the gym, it’s mainly used by local residents as overflow parking from nearby streets.

Often the car park is full before customers even arrive to use the centre.

Hitting people’s health

Unfortunately this puts many people off from attempting to use the sports centre – and fewer people exercising is good for no one.

It also means that we, as one of the biggest clubs in Hampshire, avoid booking the centre for events, because we know it’ll be a nightmare for visitors. We along with many others, end up taking our business elsewhere – and ultimately this is affecting the usage of Southsea’s only such public sports facility.

Crunch point

While this has been an ongoing issue for years, the council is about to introduce a new ‘MD’ residents’ parking zone on the surrounding streets.

This will encourage residents to park in the centre car park 24hrs a day, effectively blocking use of the sports and health facilities for paying customers.

While it’s up to the council to decide what’s best for residents in nearby Southsea, the decision could inadvertently make it near-impossible for anyone outside walking distance to use the sports centre.

Our petition

So we’ve started a petition to the council asking them to consider prioritising centre users at the car park.

One idea could be that some spaces within the car park are set aside exclusively for use by sports centre users during opening hours. Residents can be free to park there outside of those hours.

We’re also asking for more cycle hoops, as there aren’t enough spaces for cyclists when the centre is busy. (And we do encourage walking, cycling, and car sharing where possible!)

Help us make sure Wimbledon Park Sports Centre and its customers are not forgotten: