Blackwater Leisure Centre

Fantastic experience: A good swimming pool. Good for the kids. Has a steam room and sauna as well.

Positive experience:

Fantastic experience: Lovely pool and great staff

Fantastic experience: Great place to take the kids for an hour slot fun swimming session... Flume is fun too...

Positive experience: I sell here through GNB vintage fairs. Next one on Sunday 1 December. Free parking. Refreshments available. Toilets were clean. But the WiFi strength is very poor. Please bring cash as card payments are tricky due to the WiFi signal being so weak.

Positive experience: Good facilities, lots of equipment including weights. Not very expensive for the membership. I have used the gym and been to a BODYPUMP class (she didn't take any prisoners, I'm still aching 2 days later). Only downside is like all gyms you have the smelly people, who don't shower after or the opposite, where they shower and use 12 tons of spray deodorant, so either way you choke.

Positive experience: Went to maldon swim swim centre today which was really busy. The poor girl behind the drink counter was all on her own and sadly was so busy she left my bbq chicken in the grill. Then my son cut his toe open and the way the staff attended to him was appalling. 1st aid was given but no gloves were worn. The manager then went to clean the blood away from side of pool but blood had managed to get into the water where my son was told to keep his foot. After all this I was not given a voucher for him to return for a swim so I paid for 1 hour and my son only had 15 mins. The bit he cut his toe on was put out of action by a round blue float and a wet floor sign. Where other swimmers started to move it away from edge of pool

Fantastic experience: Really good

Fantastic experience: Great place for family visit especially with small kids, maybe not the best for swimming. Thanks for sauna

Positive experience: Not enough swim area As too many lanes closed off for lessons and fast swimming

Positive experience: Struggled to find prices online, £6.80 per adult for Just Swim session in case anyone else is looking.

Negative experience: Usually like visiting, bad smell in changing rooms and toilets, half the showers sectioned off as work was ongoing. Staff friendly at least and reception clean and tidy.

Fantastic experience: Clean comfortable environment

Positive experience: Was ok. Cold water. Not that many slides.

Fantastic experience: Great time swimming

Positive experience: Enjoyable hour swim with the kids, parking is good and free while using the facilities. Changing rooms/toilets could be cleaner and kept on top of more.

Fantastic experience: Great gym facilities & friendly staff

Fantastic experience: Always a great day with the family

Positive experience: Really nice facility and good parking.

Positive experience: Visited for a "just swim" session which said minimal or no lanes. Unfortunately almost all the main pool was in use by lane swimmers so my children couldn't really practise swimming up and down without getting in the way. Baby class in the shallow flume area some of the time which would have been fine if more of the main pool was accessible. More expensive than another Places leisure centre we visit. Changing rooms clean though and good spectator area

Positive experience: It's too bloody cold, especially for young children

Positive experience: Good fun for an hour in the pool. Kids enjoyed it, especially the slides. Found the water quite cool, which wasn’t great as we had an under 2 YO with us.

Negative experience: Swimming pool is cold . The floors are disgusting the on site . The toilet were filthy I will drive further and go colchester . Will jot be taking kids here again it needs adressing I literally needed a shower when go home it wasaking me feel ill the thought of it .

Fantastic experience: went gym

Positive experience: Water was cold Not all showers working Toilet blocked No armbands left on sale, reception refused to loan me some for my 2-year-old grandaughter. They said they were not allowed. However it was their fault they had run out, therefore felt they could have compromised. Its hard to hold on to a child for an hour in the water and does not give them the freedom of movement. Lifeguards where friendly and helpful

Positive experience: Almost perfect, but the water was a bit chilly and lockers required coins. Unfinished yet.

Fantastic experience: Great swimming pool, with good swimming lessons.

Fantastic experience: I joined the gym today and the staff member was very helpful she explained all the information around the different classes available to book and showed me around the centre and booked me in for my induction and also booked me in for a class also how to book in online classes

Positive experience: Well equipped leisure centre, staff are kind helpful. Classes are good and enjoyable. Only negative is the cleanliness is not brilliant and the disabled facilities are not good

Fantastic experience: Great fun for the kids. Bought tickets for the fun play (where the slide is on) Have beeb coming here since the children were small. Big enough locker rooms/changing facilities. If you decide you would rather watch them... there I'd ample seating with a small "coffee shop" counter.

Positive experience: It feels just a bit too hot in there, but apart from that we always have a brilliant time. x

Fantastic experience: Really enjoyed it. Remember to book online first! Otherwise you will probably be turned away. Very easy access to changing cubicles, with large family ones and individual ones. Pound coin for the lockers and there are large ones available. Easy to shower, then in the pool. Pool was a bit cool, at first, but pleasant. Excellent flume, the splash pool was a bit shallow for me, but perfect for the kids. Had a bubble bath sort of thing a kids pool and a proper pool, good few big floats out to play on. They also had a steam room that I only saw on the way out. They have a coloured band system to cycle your hour session, which is about all the time we needed.

Positive experience: Swimming tuition is great and organised, but swimming pool lacks private shower facilities. There are showers in the gym but they are very hot and cannot be adjusted.

Negative experience: Had my sons party here today and was rushed the whole time, they began hoovering the room 2 minutes after the party ended and before anyone had left, plus i hadnt cleared any of tables so it wss literally pointless. Oh and they served water from the warm tap for the kids, brilliant

Positive experience: It's not a 5 star leisure resort but it's a great price, friendly with lots of classes.

Fantastic experience: Great pool not over crowded, good flume, very clean.

Positive experience: Clean changing area, warm showers. Flume is great fun. Not too busy due to limited booking numbers. Water was very cold tho so we left a bit early as that ruined it for us.

Positive experience: Only visited for the pool, pre-booked tickets nice layout good clean changing rooms.

Fantastic experience: We are 40 mins drive away but come here because the kids love it. The coloured band system works well, no spectator charge for me and a nice cafe area where I can sit and read whilst also watching the kids. Coffee is nice too.

Fantastic experience: I would like to thank the staff especially Wyn, for their can do approach and for setting up the hose so I could cool down after the sauna. It made a massive difference to my experience. Hope you get the cold showers fixed soon. Thanks again, Roger

Positive experience: Absolutely loved it... went with my daughter and my 6yr old twin granddaughters. Both loved the floats that were available (especially the smiley face one). Pool was clean, although the changing rooms were clean and tidy they were extremely wet and could do with a mop up during the day due to the amount of people using the facilities(slippery and puddly when taking the kids to get changed) altogether a good hour spent

Fantastic experience: Went with our son and grandson for the lane swimming session that they run between 10 - 11 am. Lovely pool and very popular with seniors. Nice little pool side cafe for drinks and snacks. We noticed also a well equipped weights and fitness gym on site too. Free on site parking for users of the facilities. There was no charge for spectators.

Fantastic experience: We go for swimming lessons . Great instructors and a great price

Fantastic experience: Clean well kept pool area

Positive experience: It’s always been a good pool and has some great facilities. It’s more geared to casual swimming instead of fitness although there are sessions available for non-child swimming. Clean and well maintained.

Fantastic experience: Kids love it and we drive over from Billericay. Easy to book online and see if bookings are available.

Positive experience: Good selection of depths available if you have kids that are a mixture of ages and ability. Not too busy. Clean pool and changing areas, though the pool is always cold and entry is a bit pricey for just 45mins.

Positive experience: Lovely pool with pool side cafe. Changing area bit small especially if you are a bigger family like ours with 3 kids and 2 adults. Nice staff on reception. Lifeguards are quite young very friendly but wasn't telling the youngsters in the pool off for boisterous behaviour. My younger kids (8,6, 8m) were smacked in the head several times by a ball. Took matters into my own hands and mentioned it to life guard at the time. Clean toilets and changing areas. Kids love the flume.

Fantastic experience: Having been to quite a few pools for 'family' sessions...this one ticks a lot of boxes. Floats for children, shallow cordoned area for young children, water shute for all, lane swimming and the bonus of a sauna and a steam room for adults. This gets my vote for where to go with the little people.

Fantastic experience: Great gym with plenty of other facilities on site. Nice helpful staff

Fantastic experience: Good experience on 2 recent visits. Only visited the swimming pool but the booking experience was simple, and was reasonably priced - £16 for an adult and 2 children. Will visit again

Fantastic experience: The leisure centre looked very nice,very obliging lady in cafe. Antique fair very small not great.

Positive experience: Great pool my daughter loves it not bad pricing average for 1hr slot always go 1 a month.

Fantastic experience: Only visited for the pool, pre-booked tickets nice layout good clean changing rooms and a great slide for the kids and me, the pricing compared to other pools is spot on and we'll definitely be going again.

Positive experience: Birthday party venue for children

Negative experience: Was not allowed in slightly earlier to get changed to get the full hour in the pool as an hour isn’t always long enough as it is! The changing area was very grubby and needs a good wash over especially the floor area!

Negative experience: Even though we payed for hour swim, we were thrown out 13 mins early so they could set up the swim school!!! So not very happy about this at all!!

Fantastic experience: Great little gym and is perfect for what most will require, doesn't seem to get over busy or crowded,

Fantastic experience: You have to book swimming online before arriving, doesn't take too long although the website could do with some updating. The bright side is that this reduces queuing to get into the centre. Changing area was clean although could had done with more frequent squeegeeing. Bring a pound for the locker. Swimming pool temperature was perfect. All in all it's a good place to bring the family and have some fun.

Positive experience: Didn't know you had to book for swimming, very unhappy 3 year old

Fantastic experience: 1st time going there and the staff was willing to help me find everything and let me know what was available and helped me get a gym program that I can follow. The best gym I've been to will defo recommend. I loved it that much I was there in the gym 3 1/2 hours

Fantastic experience: Nice place to visit. Kids enjoyed the flume and not too busy so plenty of room to swim. Staff were friendly. Would go again.

Fantastic experience: Great place to swim and keep fit nice and clean great staff.

Positive experience: Sadly slide not open for public swim during the day but was clean and staff nice

Positive experience: 2 out of 3 hairdryers for 6 months, reported several times by the pool. Now no hairdryers due to power issue, let's see how long this takes!! Such a shame as staff are so helpful and friendly, pool & gym clean and tidy

Fantastic experience: Kids love it here better than any other pool in a 25 miles area, friendly staff

Positive experience: Good facilities, staff not helpful otherwise ok

Positive experience: Lovely pool but the toilets are absolutely disgusting, mentioned this to a member of staff who didn't care.

Positive experience: Value for money but cleanliness around the pool area leaves alot to be desired. The pool temperature is also too low.

Negative experience: The pool itself is fine, but the membership management setup where somethings can be done in house and some are outsourced (so you can find yourself getting sent back and forth between the two) and seemingly the mindset that you're nothing but an income generator at all costs means customer service is a bit lacking. So fine if all is well, the facilities are decent, but if you have something that needs to be resolved you can't expect to be treated fairly or as a valued customer based on my experience. So unfortunately I'll be going elsewhere from now on.

Fantastic experience: Fun for all the family the slide is high and fast today was a disaster my grandson uses goggles with nose covet apparently these are not permitted anymore so we won't be going back

Negative experience: Went along for an over-60s swim this afternoon 29/3 and had to leave after 10 mins as it was nothing of the sort-all ages there including school age children and their parents throwing a ball around and generally behaving as they would in a family swimming session. Lifeguard even had to intervene to keep non swimmer out of the deep end, Whilst we all want kids to have fun in the water I go to an over 60s session for a quiet environment and an age group that respects personal space in these COVID times. So come clean Blackwater -if it’s a session for all ages don’t take my money under false pretences or if it is just for over 60 swimmers enforce that decision. When I asked for a complaints procedure -well there isn’t one available at the moment so a Facebook review it has to be .. 0/12 Blackwater

Negative experience: Had my sons 8th birthday party here at the weekend, arrived to a dirty party room, food still on the floor etc. The staff were miserable and one of the girls failed to smile the whole time she was leading the party games. I emailed the following day to let them know I wasn't happy and still not had any reply. Wish I had paid the extra now and gone to Jump Street. Won't be using again.

Positive experience: Not to busy, good system for organisation. The lifeguard could be paying more attention especially at the deep end. Instead he was more interested in peeling the sticker off his water bottle.

Fantastic experience: A really good place for a children's inflatables party. Friendly staff and very helpful.

Fantastic experience: I love this place. The whole family use the facilities here.

Positive experience: Nice pool to take the kids. Glad to see the cafe now open again. I would give it five stars if they didn’t sometimes play music too loud

Fantastic experience: Very professional staff lovely, all very polite!

Positive experience: Cheap , nice pool much more fun than the boring squares. The changing rooms are somewhere between dirty and disgusting. The lifeguards are rule following children making them empathetic situations. For example I asked a life guard for a noodle float ( from the pile of 100 in front of me). As I had left mine in the car and would need to take me and my small children back to the carpark we had already jumped in . The life guard refused. That right I asked for a floatation device from a life guard whose job is to ensure safe swimming and he said no ... Rules .. Pool can sometimes be cold Showers not working right 5 months Best of a bad bunch

Positive experience: Good place for a swim although have not used the other facilities. Great place for kids to play and have fun. The range of pool depth means there is space for everyone and the slide is fun too.

Positive experience: Wonderful time. Staff helpful and polite. Clean changing rooms. Can't fault my time there

Positive experience: not a great timetable if you want to just go for a swim and changing rooms definitely don't get a thorough clean. Always a bit of a weird smell!

Positive experience: First visit, appeared to be well organised with swimming sessions being colour coded.

Fantastic experience: My wife añd i enjoyed a swimming membership before covid 19 and always felt welcome at Blackwater.

Fantastic experience: The kids love it here, really clean and well staffed pool. Recommend to everyone I know and we travel 20 miles to get there!

Fantastic experience: Went in to find out more. Met by a charming, knowledgeable and kind lady, called Karlene. Very good centre well worth a visit.

Positive experience: It was ok had to book swimming session for the family 30 mins slots obviously because of covid. But after about 45 mins was packed. Bno social distance really showers were crammed and people everywhere nr showers and changing rooms.

Negative experience: Brilliant pool and slides 2* for the fact of 1hour only time slot.

Positive experience: Super safe and good facilities

Fantastic experience: Super fun

Fantastic experience: Such a great pool kids love it

Positive experience: Nice swimming pool. It's very quiet due to Covid and you only get 45 mins but staff are so Ng their best to keep it open in the circumstances.

Positive experience: Friendly efficient staff good facilities

Fantastic experience: A great gym and leisure centre. Friendly staff who are always available to answer any queries.

Fantastic experience: Dean and the Team were a fantastic support to my daughter and her fitness goals before joining the Army. The gym couldn't do enough to help her prior to her fitness test and after with her continued fitness goals. Thank you all very much.

Fantastic experience: A great leisure center with excellent facilities and friendly staff. Always kept clean as well.

Fantastic experience: Not been to this pool for a while however the staff have always been friendly and helpful. The place has always been clean. Only thing I think would be good is to see the rapid in action as a lifeguard was saying it's been out of action for years

Fantastic experience: Many classes now started, but need to book in advance and they do fill up fast due to C19 and number restrictions

Fantastic experience: Lovely pool, super clean and organised lane swims

Positive experience: Really nice site. Clean, friendly and brilliant value for money. Sometimes there's a bit of stress at reception which could be avoided with better processes. Including the sometimes slightly negative experience from FOH team. However, the site and amenities for kids and family are really good.