Chairman of the Bridport and West Dorset Sports Trust Ltd

Fred Fowler

2024 – Present

Fred shares his memories, and the Trusts plan for the future.

Bridport Leisure Centre: A Lifelong Connection

“My first memories of the Bridport Leisure Centre are a now a bit hazy and distant, but I recall playing squash on those courts before the centre was built, as a teenager. Like many in our town, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to benefit from the Centre throughout my life. From childhood badminton in the main hall with the Bridport Royals to celebrating birthdays there, I’ve experienced the Centre as a gym member, 5-a-side football, and most significantly, as a water polo player and coach most weeks since the pool was built.

When the pool opened in 1995, I was hooked. I dedicated myself to coaching the Barracudas water polo section, helping to guide hundreds of young people over the years. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see the impact we’ve had as a relatively minor sport with a long history in the town, playing a positive contribution in many young people’s formative years and beyond, and then watching some of them return to help the next generation – including multi-generational families. For me, it is the essence of what the Leisure Centre is there for, whatever the activity, and I’m proud to have played a small part in realising what the townsfolk before me intended.

Post-Covid, I felt a strong urge to give back to the Centre that had given me so much. I joined the Trust, driven by the desire to use my business and voluntary experiences to support the management team in navigating the post pandemic financial challenges.

Since joining the Trust, we’ve been diligently working to improve efficiency, develop a long-term business plan, new income streams, new facilities and improve existing ones. This plan will guide us in exploring new opportunities to better serve our community, from enhancing existing programmes to developing new initiatives that promote health and well-being for all ages and backgrounds. We believe in strong community partnerships to make the Centre accessible to everyone, regardless of their circumstances.

In the past 18 months we installed a new array of solar panels and have just replaced all four of the swimming pool boilers. We will shortly embark on an IT project that will improve customer engagement and internal processes. We continue to collaborate with local schools to broaden access for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds during term time and holidays. We have several big projects in our plans that will hopefully come to fruition in due course, but also relatively small ones, such as creating dedicated treatment rooms that will enable health providers to potentially offer a wider range of services for customers, including physiotherapy, chiropractic care, and sports massage. It is also important that we continue to renew and refurbish our aging building, ensuring the Centre remains a relevant, modern and welcoming space for generations to come.

As someone who benefited from the efforts of previous generations in building this valuable community asset, I feel a responsibility, as a guardian, not to take it for granted and to ensure its continued success for future generations so that others can enjoy the centre as I have. Like many people from the town, I’m proud to be part of the journey that is Bridport Leisure Centre.”