A user of Alton’s three-year-old sports centre is worried that it is suffering from a lack of maintenance.

The current Alton Sports Centre – run by Everyone Active for East Hampshire District Council – opened in January 2020 to replace the original one built in 1974.

One of the reasons for the council making the change was the ageing facilities, but Piers Barttelot fears the new one is getting old before its time.

He said: “As a local who uses the new Everyone Active centre, I am hugely concerned and appalled at the state of the new facility, which is partially funded by the local council, tax money and National Lottery grants.

“From extensive poolside rust to broken water fountains, lighting, lockers, urinals etc, you name it and it probably sits there unfixed.

“We have waited a long time for this new centre, which provides amazing facilities used by a large local community, to be built and now it is being poorly managed.

“It won’t be long before someone falls foul of this lack of ongoing maintenance and gets injured or ill.

“Everyone Active was chosen as a partner for the centre and need to be under the spotlight and held to account.

“If this was just a private company with a bad service then I could vote with my feet but it is a funded partner who is squandering taxpayers’ money.”

Everyone Active general manager Lisa Brunning said: “We would like to address the concerns that have been raised at Alton Sports Centre.

“At Everyone Active we take pride in our centres, and in particular providing a safe and welcoming environment for our customers and colleagues.

“We apologise if expectations have not yet been met.

“We are aware of issues regarding the water fountain and three lockers that are currently out of order in the changing village, and one of the urinals in the men’s toilet that requires repair work.

“We want to reassure customers that we are addressing the concerns and would encourage them to report any issues when they find them.

“In response to the rusting in particular, this is an issue from the build defect management of the site and we are currently having investigation work carried out to understand why the rust is occurring and remedial work will follow once a cause is found.”