A second site visit has been scheduled for Dover Leisure Centre to ensure the centre is maintained and upgraded.

Peter Ward, a Dover campaigner, submitted a petition to the district council calling for upgrades and better communication about the future of the site.

The petition gained 300 signatures, and was submitted to the council in August.

Mr Ward, of Balfour Road, was invited to speak at a scrutiny meeting at the district council offices in Whitfield on Tuesday.

He said: “I think it’s going in the right direction. The current centre is showing improvement, but we know there’s a lot of problems that still need to be done.

“If the new centre is happening, then they are not going to spend a lot of money now.”

He said generally everything was looking better and cleaner but he was still not happy with the reporting and complaints process.

Steve Davis, managing director of Your Leisure, the company that manages the centre, also attended the meeting.

He said: “Clearly the centre has reached the end of its natural life and something does need to be done – either a total refurbishment or a new centre.”

He said the centre had faced staff difficulties that had now been resolved. Mr Davis added that there would be a new complaints process from January. Customers will be able to log issues online and the centre manager will have three days to respond or the complaint will go straight to Mr Davis to resolve.

He said: “I think we will see improvement there.”

He also said that the locks in the family area would be replaced and the baby nappy changing facilities had already been replaced.

These were issues that had been brought to the council’s attention at the last site visit.

Another visit has been scheduled in six months for the scrutiny committee to ensure that the centre is continuing to be maintained to a satisfactory standard.

A report into Dover district facilities by the Sport Consultancy, is due to be revealed in January next year, and this will determine where a new site for the leisure centre should be placed, or if the current one can be refurbished.

Mr Ward said he would like to see a new centre at the Paper Mill site in Crabble Hill.