Hard to lose our soft play spot

This month marks my first 10 years in Maidenhead.

Pre-pandemic, I worked 20 miles away, so other than attending church, related social events and sometimes swimming before driving to the office, I didn’t spend a huge amount of time in the town.

That changed when I became a mum in 2015, and began to explore Furze Platt and Belmont with a pram.

I learnt to appreciate Oaken Grove and the wonderful parks in the town.

Oaken Grove Park has improved over the years, with the Sir Nicholas Winton Memorial Garden now a lovely place to sit and enjoy a treat from the Tuk Shop (café).

Maidenhead has certainly changed in this last decade, but not always for the better.

My son delighted in bus trips to the Magnet’s pool, followed by lunch in town, and I loved leaving the car at home.

The Braywick Leisure Centre is certainly a resource to be proud of, with two fabulous pools and much more besides.

But I think RBWM missed a trick by not demolishing the Magnet quickly and rebuilding the facility in the same, town centre, location. Looking at the old road signs, you’d think they did.

Perhaps the short-lived Magnet-toBraywick shuttle bus should have launched earlier and taken people to Windsor instead.

It might have helped us weather the short-term pain of relying on the borough’s other facilities, for the long-term gain and carbon savings of keeping an easily accessible, fit-for-purpose site.

And while soft play hasn’t been an attractive prospect in recent years, things have opened up again and not replacing Cheeky Charlies now feels like a glaring omission.

Surely the income from parties and grateful parents would have helped offset the losses from leaving the Magnet empty for so long.