Demolition work at a Newcastle leisure centre should finally begin next month, as council bosses insist delays will not hamper the building of its £26m replacement.
Contractors are set to start tearing down the existing swimming pool, library, and customer service centre in West Denton in May, it has been confirmed. That will pave the way for a state-of-the-art new facility, mostly funded with a £19.8m grant from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund (LUF), to take its place.
There have been concerns that rising costs for the project amid an inflation crisis, coupled with a March 2024 deadline being set for the LUF money to be spent, could threaten the new leisure centre. However, Newcastle City Council chiefs have remained bullish throughout and maintain that the scheme will go ahead – albeit at a cost around £4m higher than first planned and with its opening date delayed to December 2024.
The demolition had been scheduled to begin back in January, but a new report now confirms that it will start next month instead – something the local authority says makes “no significant difference” to the project’s timescales.
A council spokesperson said: “The demolition of the old West Denton swimming pool has been reprogrammed to secure efficiencies in the overall cost of the construction phase of the project. This is making no significant difference and demolition at an earlier stage would not have brought forward the construction phase any earlier.
“We continue to work closely with government at all stages of the project including reviewing the timeline when necessary.”
There have been concerns about the future of LUF-backed schemes around the country being rendered unviable because of escalating building costs as a result of double-digit inflation levels over recent months. The council has said it would be seeking up to £2m from Sport England to help cover the extra costs of the new Outer West leisure centre, as well as needing to put in more funding of its own.
During the redevelopment project, a temporary library will be set up in the car park to the north of the existing building to ensure that residents still have access to books and other services. A £141,000 contract to build that was awarded to Portakabin last week.
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