Westgate Leisure Centre — Attraction in Chichester

Summary: Pool is great when you can actually use it. Changing rooms are dirty, shabby and outdated with hairdryers and lockers that don't work. Staff are nice though. New member review 3 months in.

Details: I work full time in Chichester but live in another town. I travel via public transport and just need a swim membership which the private health clubs don't offer. I want to swim straight after work around 17:00pm.

When I signed up I was told by the membership team I can swim as much and as often as I like but this was a total lie which I am angry about.

The reality: serious lane swimming on Mondays from 21:00pm only, no pool access Wednesdays and Fridays after 13:30pm&13:00pm, Thursdays from 18:30pm onwards and Sundays 15:30-16:30pm only. The only days I can actually swim after work are Tuesday 17:00pm and Saturday 17:30pm. But on Tuesdays apparently in term time there are team swim trials so there is only one lane for all 3 swim speeds for serious swimming which was rammed full and total carnage. Saturdays only 17:30pm. Today is Saturday and the pool is closed for maintenance and next Saturday the only lane open is 16:30pm when I am still at work. No one in the membership office told me these things when I specifically said I want to swim after work serious lane swimming. I am more than annoyed. I am not getting a bus into Chichester just to go swimming mid afternoon on a Sunday nor waiting at the centre for 4hrs after I finish work for a swim slot. This is ridiculous. It feels like this pool only caters to school kids.

The availability of serious swimming lanes is appalling for full time workers. The fact we have to book times and lanes when other public pools in different towns don't have to is also absurd. If you don't cancel your swim slot within 4 hrs notice or just don't turn up they sting you with a £4 fine. My membership card also won't let me in any earlier than 15 mins before my swim which is really tight to remove make-up and jewellery and change without it eating into my swim time. Earlier than 15 mins = access denied. I thought I had a membership yet am made to feel like a pay as you go customer.

The changing rooms are pretty appalling, too. Used panty liners stuck to shower walls, moldy rotten banana skins and sandwiches on the floor, mud trails from people who wear outdoor shoes right up to the pool sides. Walls slimy and hair strewn all over the showers. Chewing gum in the changing cubicles for weeks now so it doesn't get cleaned. It always smells of urine in there and in the ladies toilets there are always 2 blocked toilets and never enough toilet paper. The soap dispensers are often empty and the taps trickle water out at the slowest pace with no pressure. The lockers are shabby and old, the keys are falling apart and many lockers do not work. Also, I am very tall and every time I reach above my head in the cubicle to change I hit my arms on the weird construction placed on top of every cubicle. Someone told me it is to stop perverts looking over the top --if that's the case they need to stop the changing room being female and male mixed-- address it properly!

And to add insult to injury, you have to get a bunch of 20p coins for the hairdryer as they are not free. Two of which do not work and I have told reception many a time and this gets ignored. Who carries cash on them anyway these days?! Get with the times Everyone Active! You cannot even bring your own hairdryer because there are no plug sockets. Great when I have to travel on a bus in winter...I do not want wet hair outside.

The staff are at least friendly and apologetic but I get the impression it's the owners and management who don't care. The Sanctum upstairs, and the pool is pretty decent itself and I like that it is 33m. The facilities and timetable planning bring it down. I can't comment on the gym as I don't use it and the cafe is always closed when I arrive so don't know about that. Reception and lounge area: old torn and faded posters, the ceilings are patchy and stained and furniture is torn. It looks run...

Male changing facilities in the health suite are generally quite unacceptable. With a ‘good enough’ approach to its maintenance.

Multiple times I’ve been told it’s cleaned bi-weekly. But the same dust clumps and mold, hair is still present across the showers and unpleasant odours remain. Both disabled or ‘private’ showers have no locking facilities on them and have been removed due to the locks being faulty and people becoming trapped in there as the door won’t open. So the ‘good enough’ approach was to remove the locks entirely, which has now been in place for 4-5 months.

Half the lockers do not work correctly and users have to be trained as a locksmith to have the key at the right angle enough so the coin doesn’t fall through to the floor, with many lockers not having doors at all.

The health suite sauna and steam room have the same unpleasant odours in them and maintenance, generally seems to be to hose it down and leave the door open at the end of the day. 2 saunas and 1 steam room is what is listed. But 1 sauna is always off to ‘conserve energy’ some weeks ‘broken’ the next week or not hot at all, you regularly fine 8 people crammed into one sauna with 4 more people waiting on the chairs to go in. The floors are slimy and slippery and although there is a sign to say ‘no oils’ in the sauna or steam rooms, they are regularly brought in to counteract the smells which are present in the facilities.

Although signs outside say no under 18/16’s past this point, regularly on a Monday and Tuesday you’ll find school/ college kids with no membership go in to the health suite and start messing around.

Poorly maintained with the bare minimum cleaning. poorly managed with a spit in the face for people who pay more for the extra facilities.

Gyms been renovated which is nice.. except the air con does not work so it’s 25-28 degrees in the main room, a lot of attachments are still old, with split rubber on handle attachments and the lack of carabiner clips make it a chore to do any cable work. 2 treadmills have been broken for the past month and water fountains regularly...

I've had a membership here for just over 8 months and I have to say I'm extremely disappointed. The gym is now newly renovated but lots of the equipment is 'unusable' or 'out of order' regularly. Fitness classes are always overbooked and many people enter the classes without even booking. for example the Pilates classes have a maximum of 30 spaces, it is always overbooked with people on the 'waiting list' and nearly every class has more than the maximum ammount of booked people in there. Some of the staff are very kind and helpful but others seem exasperated and aggravated when asked for help with something. The swimming pool when booking as a member is free of charge but only for an hour if you don't want to swim in lanes. The so called 'spa' area is very poorly managed and outdated, it is always PACKED with people who don't have a membership or haven't booked to go in. Also, there are 2 saunas, 1 of which is hardly ever turned on when it is so extremely busy in there. many times I have come purely for the purpose of going to the spa and just ended up going home. And last but not least the changing room facilities are absolutely disgusting. There is mold, hair, algae and other mysterious substances everywhere. They look like they haven't been properly cleaned in years. Half the locks are falling off the doors and everything is so filthy I am appalled. The filth in the changing rooms is not just a one time thing or created in a day by the people who come here. There is even mold growing in some of the soap dispensers in the showers!!

I really hope that Everyone Active puts their priorities in order because this is truly appalling and I am not the first person to...