Station Leisure & Learning Centre

Mablethorpe’s health ranking is in the lowest 12% of towns in England with significant levels of frailty amongst its older population. The area also suffers with poor levels of educational attainment and skills, while 58% of the working population are economically inactive compared to 20% in England. The new facility is addressing these inequalities and has delivered a community asset the local population can be proud of.

The development has been funded by £7.5m from the Towns Fund, with match funding from East Lindsey District Council after the Connected Coast Town Deal Board secured £23.9m of Towns Fund investment for the town. East Lindsey District Council, part of the South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership with Boston Borough Council and South Holland District Council, led the development. 

Station Leisure & Learning Centre is one of six regeneration projects planned for Mablethorpe. Designed to improve leisure, learning, travel and the overall experience of the town, the projects include improvements to the town centre, a sustainable visitor hub at Sandilands Nature Reserve and a new pavilion, café and restaurant for the seafront.

Meanwhile, £24.5m is funding seven transformational projects in nearby Skegness, with £21.9m being invested in Boston to regenerate the Lincolnshire coastline.

Located on the high street with its own car park, the new £13.5m Station Leisure & Learning Centre replaces Station Sports Centre and provides the town with its first public swimming pool offering swimming lessons, family swims, school swimming and public swim sessions. In addition to the four-lane, 25 metre pool and changing village, the 3,000m² scheme includes a large gym including functional areas and EGYM, multi-purpose studio and group cycling studio as well as a TAGactive indoor adventure area and soft play for younger children.

The centre is also served by a large café, social workspace and The Signal Box; a community space bringing learning to the area. The development offers a new outdoor playground for the community, while a 80kW solar PV array has been installed on the roof with a view to allowing the centre to feed excess electricity back into the grid.

Magna Vitae Trust for Leisure and Culture operates the new centre on behalf of the council.

• ‘Really pleasing, extremely positive community response’ – Magna Vitae
• Over 1,300 fitness memberships, surpassing both the previous venue’s results and the predictions in the business case.
• 110 members of Learn to Swim programme, and an average of over 5,000 swims per month.
• The provision of the new centre has enabled the introduction of ‘Slow and Steady’ social swims, which has had to double in size due to high demand. Inclusive swimming sessions have also been introduced, enabling even more community members to get active.
• The centre is also running Support Swims, part of Swim England’s Aquatics for Health scheme.
• The new Egym facilities are being well-used, with over 45% of the membership base using the technology to track their overall health and fitness. From June-October 2024, users saw an average of six-years’ improvement on their metabolic age, and a 9% average increase in strength.
• 1,500 average monthly Group Exercise participation. The most popular sessions are the ‘Aquacise’ classes in the pool.
• The centre’s café facilitated the expansion of a small local catering provider, again increasing local employment offer and adding to the overall quality of customer experience.
• Holiday activity programmes have been running, with the addition of a breakfast club offering during October half-term providing low-cost activities and support to local families.