Agenda item - King Alfred Leisure Centre

This Council notes:

1)       Residents are worried about the financial viability of the plans at a time when the council is struggling financially;

2)       The phase three consultation process in 2024 attracted only around 3600 responses^[1];

3)       The proposed facility is smaller than the existing one (e.g. 25m pool, modest 6-court hall), despite claims of a “world-class” centre^[2] while costs have inflated from £47m (2024) to £65m (2025 RIBA 2);

4)       The residential build is intrinsically related to the build of the leisure centre, and that they should be considered together;

5)       There is no clear contingency for construction inflation, climate adaptation, or operator underperformance;

6)       The King Alfred is already popular, and that popularity will be hard to increase given the small-scale nature of the upgrade;

7)       The predictions of visitor numbers are highly speculative, and the cost will be much higher than the council is forecasting.  This is potentially another i360.

8)       The council is very unlikely to ensure that 40% of the housing stock is affordable. 

This Council resolves to:

1)    Request that Cabinet reconsider:

a)    A pausing of the approval by cabinet of £2.3m in resources until the plans for housing have been set out;

b)    And a pausing of approval until the whole of the site is provisionally costed so taxpayers are not left counting the cost.