AMBITIOUS ideas for top-class sports facilities in Minehead - including a swimming pool, indoor and outdoor gyms and even an ice-rink - are on the agenda of a new working group set up this week.

Members of Minehead Town Council, the Minehead Pool Project, Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership and Minehead Connect agreed at a meeting at the Old Hospital that a long-term strategic plan to improve the town’s sports facilities was “desperately needed”.

And over the next few weeks, the ten-member group will review the existing sports facilities and assess what is currently fit for purpose, what needs to be improved and what new developments need to be considered.

“Everyone agrees that Minehead is lacking some of the amenities that a tourism-based town of its size is expected to have,” said Old Hospital owner Bill Howard, a member of Minehead Connect.

He said the focus was on how to improve facilities not only for Minehead but also for West Somerset.

“The group has already discussed highly topical elements such as swimming facilities, the football club, field sports, indoor and outdoor gymnasium provisions and even an ice rink.

“It now plans to start an across-the-board review of what facilities the town already has, expose all areas where it is disadvantaged and determine how to improve what is on offer in a fully-integrated and collaborative way.

“This could involve either extending existing facilities or replacing them with high-tech state-of-the art alternatives.”

It was hoped that the study would create a set of “realistically achievable, attractive and sustainable facilities” .

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