Forking out at Braywick

The swanky, modern-looking Braywick Leisure Centre (BLC) now seems to be bedded in, having opened nearly two years ago, although I suspect many of you, who were semi-regular users of the Magnet, have yet to step inside it.

One thing the fallout from COVID has taught us, is the importance of exercise – for both our physical and mental health.

If there is one place we should be actively encouraged to go to in Maidenhead (and let’s be honest, the options aren’t that plentiful), it is to BLC, whether it be for a swim, to use the gym or even to do the Park Run on a Saturday.

A fitter, healthier population means people are more productive at work and need fewer medical appointments.

When activities have such clear social benefits, economists suggest that these should be subsidised.

However, in Maidenhead, the local council instead choose to effectively put an extra tax on them.

This comes in the form of the extra charge to park cars on the site.

At this point RBWM may put on their green hat, which they like to do sometimes, to say they want to discourage us driving our cars.

However, this would beg the question – how on earth do you get there then?

If you wanted to get a bus from Cox Green to Braywick, then good luck to you without going via the town centre and the journey taking over an hour.

Or what if you lived in Larchfield and you fancied a stroll to the leisure centre down Harvest Hill Road?

Well, all the best with that, as there isn’t any pavement for some of it.

The building of BLC was hopelessly thought through infrastructure wise, as if you survive the dangerous walk down Harvest Hill, once you get to the bottom of it, you get to play a real-life version of Frogger, the 1970s computer game, in order to cross the four lanes of traffic to reach your final destination.

This should at least get your heart rate up a bit in preparation for your chosen sport, but why couldn’t they have at least built a footbridge over the Braywick Road near the BLC?

Alternatively you could cycle there, perhaps from Furze Platt or the Belmont area?

But sadly bikes have been going missing from the racks at BLC (although thankfully less often there than at the railway station bike rack).

I wouldn’t ride there if I had either a valuable bike or a cheap lock.

The average stay at the leisure centre is probably about an hour-and-a-quarter.

For that you get charged £2.60 to park your car.

This is over half as much again as an adult swim (£4.65 for those who can prove they live in RBWM).

Whatever happened to the Advantage Card by the way?

Many won’t care about this additional parking charge and yes, life’s too short to worry unduly about such things.

Yet prices are climbing a fair bit at the moment (the inflation rate this week, anyone?) and a levy on exercise does seem unduly harsh, for this extra charge is logistically unavoidable for the vast majority of people using the BLC.

There was a time when users of the Magnet could reclaim at least some of their parking expenses against the cost of their sporting activity.

Why did this stop and could it not be restarted for BLC users?

And perhaps parking charges could be waived during Saturday morning Park Runs? Perhaps this fantastic event would be even better supported then.

This wouldn’t be difficult to do.

Surely, we should be incentivising people to play sport rather than penalising them financially – particularly in the midst of a cost of living crisis.