Ambitious plans to build a brand new leisure centre in a Notts town linked to a historic park and nature trail will start next year.
Broxtowe Borough Council wants to close the leisure centre in Derby Road and build a new one further back into the woodland with links to Bramcote Park.
Cllr Milan Radulovic (Lab), leader of the council, said he wants work to commence on the new “modern and high-tech facility” in 2022.
The council will fund the new build in Bramcote and keep the old leisure centre open while work commences.
Cllr Radulovic said the Derby Road facility is in “a poor condition” and needs replacing. The old site will then be demolished.
The proposal was discussed at a Policy and Performance Committee on Thursday, December 2.
Councillors heard how an external leisure consultant has commenced further work on the new build and aims to provide a detailed feasibility report to the council in January.
A working group has discussed ‘must have’ and ‘should have’ proposals which could include a café looking over the park, two swimming pools, gym, sports hall, aerobics studio, and soft play area.
It is likely to open in the 2025/26 financial year.
Cllr Richard Jackson, leader of the opposition Conservative Group, told the committee: “We could have a unique leisure centre in a park/woodland setting that will bring people in from miles around.”
In the same meeting concerns were raised about a joint-use agreement for Kimberley Leisure Centre between the East Midlands Education Trust and Broxtowe Borough Council.
The agreement ends on April 22, 2022. This means the control of the land and buildings will revert to The Kimberley School.
A joint planning group has been set up for both organisations to work together to ensure there is a smooth transition so that members of the community can continue to make use of the leisure centre outside of school hours from April.
The committee heard that further meetings, with all parties, have taken place so that options for community use could be considered.
Negotiations are still ongoing, and the council and leisure provider will need to assess in detail the operational and financial implications of any offer from the school for community use.
Cllr Philip Owen (Cons) said: “We have had no detail of the negotiations. I don’t know what our position is or what the vision of public access really is. That is the whole problem we have not been privy to what is going on.”
Cllr Mel Crow (Cons) said: “The communication is poor. We have not had an update since the beginning of October. We are the ones that the community come to and ask questions and we can say nothing because we don’t know nothing.”
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Radulovic said negotiations are taking place with the school to run it outside of school hours on behalf of the community.
He said details have not been disclosed due to commercial sensitivity.
