25th February 2026
This March both Thame and Didcot Wave leisure centres will benefit from a £600,000 investment to revamp the ‘dry side’ changing facilities giving them a much-needed makeover.
The facilities at both centres are in need of improvements to make them as modern and easy to maintain as possible.
The refurbishments will include the installation water saving devices in the toilets and showers and new LED energy efficient lighting will be fitted.
At Thame the centre will have its main corridor decorated, as well as the accessible toilet and new showers and toilets will be installed. The downstairs gym will be totally refurbished and repurposed.
Cllr Pieter-Paul Barker Cabinet Member Finance and Property Assets at South Oxfordshire District Council said: “Both Thame and Didcot are very popular centres and it’s important that we do all we can to make sure that the facilities are kept to a high standard for users and meet the Sport England requirements.
“High quality facilities at a leisure centre can really make a difference to the user experience and I’m pleased that we are able to use our developer contributions to support the on-going work we do to support the health and wellbeing of our residents.”
The changing area refurbishments will have an impact on some gym and studio users due to the dry side changing facilities being unavailable for a period of around 10 – 12 weeks while these works are delivered, the expectation is that this work will be completed by the summer.
Users of the gym (and studios at Didcot) are advised to arrive gym ready while the works are being carried out. At Didcot Wave there will be access to the wet side changing areas if needed and at Thame Leisure Centre there will be access at certain times of the day to the wet side changing.
The swimming pools services and classes will not be affected during this time.
Both Thame and Didcot Wave will keep customers updated on the progress of the work via their Facebook accounts and with notice boards at the centres.
South Oxfordshire District Council is using developer contributions (S106) from the local areas to fund the projects which will cost a total of £600,000 (Thame £350,000 and Didcot £250,000).
Investment in leisure across South Oxfordshire
This work follows the investment of £140,000 at Didcot Wave last year to create two new studios for spin classes and another multi-use room and forms part of the councils commitment to investing in leisure facilities across the district, with further investments planned this year at Abbey Sports Centre in Berinsfield which will have a new sports hall floor installed.
Last summer 2025, work was completed at Thame Leisure Centre to install just over 150 solar panels, reducing the site’s reliance on fossil fuels and lowering its carbon emissions. The solar panels cover large areas of the roof space at the centre including the gym and the sports hall. It is estimated the panels will produce 69,000KWh of renewable electricity for the centre. This project follows other work carried out at the site to improve energy efficiency including the installation of LED lighting.
At Didcot Wave, South Oxfordshire District Council has been successful in its bid for government funding towards installing energy efficiency measures including solar panels and air source heat pumps to replace end of life gas-fired boilers at Didcot Wave.
Along with similar work at Park Sports Centre at Wheatley this should save more than 200 tonnes in carbon emissions each year so much of the energy needed to run the leisure centres will soon be renewable rather than from fossil fuels.
