Inflation has been blamed for the bulk of a massive rise in the cost of a £31m leisure centre project with green energy improvements also incurring some of the hit.
Initially, Halton Borough Council was expecting to spend £20m on the building, to be built on Moor Lane in Widnes. That figure has jumped 55% to £31m, according to information provided by the local authority to a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) from the ECHO.
Halton Council said most of the increase was due to inflation, attributed to factors including Brexit, Covid-19, and the “energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine”. A council spokeswoman told the ECHO the designs have also been revised to replace proposed gas-fired boilers with air source heat pumps, which are cheaper and cleaner to run but more expensive to install.
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The building will also be connected to the Widnes municipal solar farm at the former St Michael’s Golf Course.
The £11m hike in the project cost was approved by the borough’s executive board in a session barred to press and public at the Municipal Building on Kingsway on October 20, with the contract awarded to Wates Group.
A call-in period expired on November 1, with the price rise remaining undisclosed.
In his reply to the FOI request, filed on October 20 and answered on November 7, John Hughes, the council ’s divisional manager for operations in the enterprise, community and resources department, said the contract signed with Wates was nearly £29m, while the Compulsory Purchase Order and highways improvements would need about £2m.
Planning permission was granted in November 2020, with key features expected to include a six-lane 25-metre pool with a learner pool and seating for around 150 visitors, a 100-station gym and a four-court sports hall.
Other approved facilities at the centre include a spinning and exercise studio, squash court, complementary facilities, soft play area, health consultation rooms and a café with social space.
The project was initially pitched to the public as the "Widnes Leisure Centre", but it appears to have undergone a rebrand with council documents more recently referring to it as “Halton Leisure Centre”.
Initially it was proposed that a parallel facility would be built in Runcorn, with the scheme earmarked to be completed as part of the £56m redevelopment of Halton Hospital as a health campus within an “NHS Halton Lea Healthy New Town”, only for successive funding bids to be unable to secure the cash.
Meanwhile, Runcorn Swimming Pool has shut, and the Silver Jubilee Bridge has been reconfigured to accommodate a cycle lane between Runcorn and Widnes.
The "ageing" Kingsway Leisure Centre will be demolished as part of the project.
Explaining the reasons for the Halton Leisure Centre’s £11m cost rise to £31m, the council spokeswoman said: “It is mainly due to inflation though - the construction industry being massively affected.
"Brexit, Covid, the energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine are also factors - apparently industries such as steel production have seen huge increases.
“Also, since the original cost was submitted there has been a design change in respect of the plant, moving away from traditional gas fired boilers to the building’s heat and hot water being provided by air source heat pumps which run on electricity, so the building will not now be connected to the gas supply at all.
“The reason for this is to reduce the carbon footprint of the building and to address the decarbonisation agenda.
“The plan now is also to connect the building to the solar farm which will provide a proportion of the electrical needs of the building.
“These design changes in the building have increased the cost by £1.2m.”
In his reply to the ECHO, Mr Hughes said: “I can confirm that the contract sum for the new leisure centre submitted by the contractor Wates who will be undertaking the work is £28,997,616.
“There are other costs associated with the project such as acquiring the land and property interests via a Compulsory Purchase Order of those companies who occupied the site together with off-site highway improvement works and fees, all of which amount to circa £2m bringing the total cost inclusive of everything to circa £31m.”
The price rise came amid reports in other parts of the country of councils putting projects on hold or facing higher construction bills due to inflation, with Place Northwest property news reporting sector cost increases of 26.4% since 2021.
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