Issue - meetings

Report of the Chief Executive

Presented by the Community Services Portfolio Holder

The Community Services Portfolio Holder presented the report to Members.

She stated that she was pleased to bring the update to Cabinet, that all Members recognised that the project had the potential to be the largest undertaken by the Council for many years, impacting on current and future generations of residents, that many of the residents recognised that the Council’s leisure facilities, whilst good, were not large enough, or flexible enough to meet future, or even current demand and that the paper before Cabinet explained the current status of the project and set out the broad shape of ongoing work that would come forward for future Cabinet and Council consideration and ultimately a decision.

She informed Members that the project was about creating state of the art leisure facilities that would ensure the authority could meet the leisure needs of North West Leicestershire’s current and future residents and that Cabinet would recall previous discussions about the need for a leisure centre during which Members considered a number of alternative sites. The decision was made to pursue further investigation of the Bridge Road car park site, in the centre of Coalville. Following consultation with district council members, parish councils, sports clubs, current leisure centre users and the general public the Council had received a clear message that the Bridge Road car park was not considered suitable. This was due to its confined nature, difficulty of access, disconnection from what would remain as outdoor leisure facilities on the current Hermitage leisure centre site, and businesses in the town centre expressed concern that it might harm, rather than improve, footfall in the town centre. A number of consultees, including Members and parish councils, suggested that the Council’s land off the A511 would be a suitable site for a new indoor leisure facility. As such, the council team has done some preparatory work, and Cabinet was now asked to endorse progress made to date.

She highlighted the following points of the report to Members:

Financial implications

The report explained that more work was needed to develop the financial modelling into a formal business case and detailed financial forecast that would be completed in the coming months. The affordability model provided with the report presented a ‘worst case’ scenario and indicated that, with a minimum saving of current corporate overheads of £200,000 per annum, the project would ‘break even’. In simple terms it meant that the current level of subsidy to the leisure service would continue in return for the creation of a new facility. The new facility was expected to cost £18 million, of which it would be aimed for £4 million to be funded from receipts from sale of the Council’s land off Cropston Drive and the existing footprint of the Hermitage Leisure Centre.

Staff implications

Cabinet, all other Members and the project team were acutely aware of the sensitivity of the project proposal for the hardworking staff within the leisure service. Much effort had been put into keeping staff informed, most  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24