NBBC present ambitious future leisure development plans

On 14th November the Council will be presenting future options for the development and enhancement of leisure provision throughout the Borough

Following the adoption of the Council’s Leisure Strategy and subsequent Local Plan in 2018, Members and Officers have been working behind the scenes in exploring options which will meet the future demands of residents up to 2031.

These options follow the work previously reported to Cabinet in 2018 and now high-level proposals have been developed that the Council feel can be moved forward to the next stages of the design process, subject to financial modelling on their affordability. Approximately £9 million of Developers’ Section 106 contributions (which developers are required to pay for projects to help manage the impact of developments) will be requested to support the additional sporting facilities for the Borough to be able to meet the increased demand.

Brent Davis, Executive Director – Operations said:

“Officers have worked hard over the last two years in partnership with Sport England and other stakeholders to develop these proposals that are to be presented to the Internal Overview and Scrutiny Panel next week.  

"Whilst there is still some work to do on making sure the plans are affordable, we hope to get approval soon to be able to move the plans forward to the next stage of design and more detailed costing plans."

Some key aspects of the proposals are set out below:

Bedworth Leisure Centre

Due to the need to increase pool space at the Bedworth Leisure Centre and the practicalities of doing this in an ageing building, we want to build a new, modern and fit for purpose wet and dry leisure centre in the Miners Welfare Park. This will contain a 25 metre, 8 lane swimming pool, a teaching pool, a 4 court indoor sports hall, a 100 station health and fitness facility with dance studio space and a café.

We are also looking at the possibility of having a state-of-the art roof-top all weather small sided floodlit football pitch/s to support the growing local junior clubs’ requirements for extra training facilities, with the option to use this facility for matches. We will construct a bigger car park and provide facilities to encourage cycle and walking to the new centre and the use of electric cars going forward.

Pingles Leisure Centre

The Pingles Leisure Centre that was opened in 2002 currently provides excellent facilities for the Borough, but we recognise that there is a need to make improvements for the future. Therefore we are proposing building an additional 25 metre, 6 lane community swimming pool with the potential of a floating floor facility to support all day public lane swimming, capacity for additional swimming lessons and club development opportunities.

We plan to extend the health and fitness areas, developing new studios and classrooms. As part of these changes the main entrance point will be moved, new changing rooms built and a new café area opened.

A new sports hall on the existing car park will provide a one-stop-shop for a wide variety of sports and as  with our plans for the new Bedworth Leisure Centre, we will construct a bigger car park and provide facilities to  encourage cycle and walking to the new centre and the use of electric cars going forward.

Northern Nuneaton

In partnership with Warwickshire County Council (WCC) we have been working on the opportunity to develop and enhance our leisure offer in northern Nuneaton, recognising the extensive housing developments in the Higham Lane, A5, Longshoot and Weddington areas. As such WCC and the Borough Council want to build a combined leisure and school facility on one site proving an “Active” community hub that will be open to the public during the day, evening and weekends. This facility would meet Ofsted requirements and enable an enhanced sport and leisure offer for school pupils to support increased physical activity and attainment levels.

The facilities  we want to see at this site include a 6 court sports hall as opposed to a standard  4 court school sports hall; a 100 station health and fitness facility, studio, class areas and a full sized all weather floodlit football pitch that would provide a central venue for local junior football. There would also be outdoor grassed football pitches and changing facilities.

Discussions are also taking place with Warwickshire Health Service, the Clinical Commissioning Group and Public Health Warwickshire to look at opportunities for the provision of GP services from the same site.

Parks Concept Planning

We are also looking to develop our two town’s Destination Parks – Miners’ Welfare and Riversley Park - to ensure that the overall Borough leisure and open space facilities support our residents’ needs around health and mental well-being.

Most of us recognise the importance of physical activity, however mental health is just as important and we want to ensure that the provisions we develop reflect and support this in our parks.

Please find below a link to the agenda item number 8, appendix A of the Internal Overview and Scrutiny Panel to be held on 14th November 2019.

https://www.nuneatonandbedworth.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/4375/download_agenda_item_no_8_appendix_a_-_nbbc_sopg_report