Council bosses insist they are still confident that a new leisure centre in Newcastle will be built before a “very tight” Government deadline expires.
City bosses are pushing to deliver a state-of-the-art new facility to replace the closed West Denton swimming pool, after being awarded almost £20m from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund last year. The move to build a new leisure centre, which will have two pools and a library, came after a public outcry over operator GLL shutting down the existing outer west pool in 2020.
But there have been fears that the new centre will not be built in time to meet a tight funding deadline – with the Government having said that it expects the funding awarded from the first round of the Levelling Up Fund to be spent by March 2024, or into the following financial year for larger projects deemed exceptional. That timeframe gives Newcastle City Council potentially less than two years to obtain planning permission for the development, demolish the existing facilities in West Denton Way, and build the new centre in their place.
Read More: Worries that new West Denton leisure centre won't be ready in time for Government's 2024 deadline
At a council cabinet meeting on Monday night, the city’s Lib Dem opposition leader Nick Cott raised concerns again about the “very tight timeframe” and asked for reassurance that the Government’s deadline can be met. Labour’s Lesley Storey said the Lib Dems were “right to point out how challenging this project is” and attacked the Government for imposing a “false timescale”.
But Coun Storey, the cabinet member responsible for leisure centres, said the scheme was being “aggressively project managed” and that she had a “huge amount of confidence in the team”. She added: “You are right to be concerned, I am concerned and the team are doing everything they possibly can to keep this project on track.”
On Monday evening the cabinet approved a change in the procurement process to appoint a contractor to build the new leisure centre in order to attract more competitive bids for the work, as only a single company working under the council's normal framework was available.
Council leader Nick Kemp said: “We are very, very aware of the tightness of the timescale. It is something that was imposed upon us but we are committed to delivering an excellent project in the outer west.”
The proposed site would have a 25m main swimming pool, a smaller training pool, a library, cafe, sports hall, gym, and studios. It is understood that the council’s planning committee is due to consider the application in August.
Sport England, while supportive of the plans, has raised concerns that "vital contextual information" is missing from the council's designs and that no justification had been provided for the scale of the facilities.
- Read More:
- Why the new £362m Tyne and Wear Metro fleet will be much better at surviving intense heatwaves
- Scorching heatwave proves Newcastle must 'move further, faster' in fight against climate change
- Councils back delay of Newcastle Clean Air Zone tolls to 2023 – but government must still approve
- £2.5m revamp of O2 Academy set for all-clear after new owners drop 'abhorrent' 4.30am midweek closing time
- Newcastle City Council staff warn morale at 'rock bottom' and accuse bosses of 'wall of secrecy'
