‘Will there still be a borough council by the time leisure centre in Hunstanton is replaced?’
In his weekly Turnstone column, Hunstanton writer John Maiden looks at leisure facilities past, present and future…
Two items of news grabbed my attention towards the end of November. While my American friends on both sides of the Atlantic were celebrating 'Thanksgiving' and contemplating another Trump presidency, I was wondering if the Oasis leisure centre would be replaced before or after local government reorganisation spells the end of the road for West Norfolk Council.
If I were still an elected member of Hunstanton Town Council, I would doubtless be asking central government to ensure that town and parish councils will be properly consulted, before planning decisions affecting their communities are taken at, or beyond, county level. This was my first thought, but looking back at the way Hunstanton Urban District Council (HUDC) behaved in the years leading up to reorganisation in 1974, it became obvious to me that the people of my home town suffered as much from the actions of the outgoing Urban Council as they did from the incoming West Norfolk District Council, which became the Borough Council in 1981.
Photographic evidence on display at Hunstanton Heritage Centre proves that the £25,000 handed over to the new local authority in 1974 would have been better spent on keeping the Blue Lagoon open-air swimming pool going until it could have been included in a purpose-built leisure centre, blending in with Hunstanton's art deco architecture along the southern seafront. Instead, most of the 200-foot length of the Blue Lagoon lies buried beneath a car park and the Oasis, which sets a very poor example in terms of its appearance. This is even more apparent now that the Oasis lies in the shadow of the brave new art deco-style building on the Kit Kat site.
At this point, some newcomers to the area might be wondering why HUDC was prepared to see the impressive Sandringham Hotel and the railway station share the same fate as the Blue Lagoon. In those days the Lynn News was flooded with letters from residents complaining about what HUDC planned to erect in place of these precious assets. It was what a certain John Maiden described at the time as the 'North Sea Bubble'. Fortunately, thanks to the strength of local public opinion, the bubble was finally burst by the casting vote of HUDC chairman Gordon Cracknell.
Given the debt that would have been passed on to West Norfolk Council if the Bubble had been built, it would have seemed reasonable for the newly formed authority to provide Hunstanton with a new swimming pool as soon as possible and spearhead a campaign to restore the Hunstanton to Lynn railway.
In fact, the Oasis, with its heated leisure pool, came ten years after the 1974 reorganisation and, if the proposed changes to local government are approved, a Hunstanton to Norwich railway might happen before we are reconnected to the national rail network via Lynn. Perhaps money set aside for the western link road could be diverted to this much more environmentally friendly project, and bring even more joy to Canary fans living in wild West Norfolk.