The final cost of delayed work at a crumbling Liverpool leisure centre has been confirmed.
After years of delay, Liverpool Council has signed off on a scheme of work to refurbish the dilapidated Peter Lloyd Lifestyles leisure centre in Tuebrook. An urgent decision was taken by officers on Monday to green light the pot of cash needed to bring the popular location back into service.
The council has confirmed that a total of £1.4m has been made available for the work, with more than half - £753,000 - to be used in repairing the roof by contractors Liquid Roofing and Kier building services for project fees. A further £336,000 has been earmarked for “nonessential internal refurbishments” according to a decision report.
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Peter Lloyd has been shut since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic with a number of the city’s other Lifestyles centres being able to reopen as the government lifted restrictions. A Liverpool Council spokesperson confirmed last week that contractors were committed to starting work on site this month at long last.
The council report said: “Lifestyles Peter Lloyd is the third busiest facility of all Lifestyles centres and is used extensively by a wide range of and community group. "Existing users have been temporarily dispersed to other centres, which is not sustainable in the long run.
"Therefore, the decision to reopen the facility is supported from several aspects.” The closure of the site since the beginning of the pandemic is estimated to have lost the local authority £1m a year in potential revenue.
The option to dispose of Lifestyles Peter Lloyd was rejected as this would result in “a loss of a leisure facility for the local community” while leaving the site as is was seen as a non-starter as this would “cause a further degradation in its condition causing potential Health and Safety concerns for not only the site itself but neighbouring school site.” The site is unable to open to the public in any form in its current state of repair.
In the summer of 2021, an initial survey of the roof was undertaken and subsequently a budget of £417k was allocated to renewing the roof from the 2021/22 capital budget. The report said: “Following market fluctuations and sharply increasing cost in labour, material, the subsequent advice was to increase the roof replacement budget to £750k plus project fees.”
The roof works are essential to create a stable watertight building and will require completing before any other refurbishment works can take place. Assistant Mayor, Cllr Harry Doyle, cabinet member for culture and visitor economy, has instructed officers to follow the urgency procedure in the constitution or to get an express delegation from the Mayor using her residuary power.
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