Fears have been expressed that plans for a £7.7 million redevelopment of a South Cumbrian leisure centre have been shelved amid proposals to halt funding.
While phase one is now complete, phases two and three of the work at Ulverston Leisure Centre on Priory Road are being removed from the Westmorland and Furness authority’s capital programme in the midst of its new unitary authority budget plans.
These sections of the project – reported last year to include a new six-lane swimming pool and refurbishment of the existing all-weather hockey pitch – are understood to equate to £5.37m in funding.
Despite the removal, council documents maintain the project is continuing development and will be referred to cabinet once complete.
Budget proposals for the Westmorland and Furness unitary authority, which is to begin operating from April 1, are to come under the spotlight at a meeting of the shadow council’s cabinet today.
Councillor Michelle Scrogham, the mayor of Ulverston, said she was furious.
She said: “Putting a hold on it and removing the funding doesn’t give me much room for confidence. My ultimate fear here is we’ll lose the whole thing.”
She added she was ‘extremely sceptical’ that the leisure centre would ever find itself back on the council’s agenda.
Barrow and Furness MP Simon Fell has also written to Jonathan Brook, leader of the shadow council, to express his concerns.
He said: “The development of the leisure centre in Ulverston is a key driver in addressing health inequalities in the Furness Peninsula, driving up tourism, and enhancing grassroots and recreational sport in the town. I would implore you to rethink your plans.”
The MP added the proposed funding withdrawal risked the ‘timely delivery of updated sports facilities’ in the town and ‘the ability of local sports clubs to plan, operate and remain viable’.
He also felt the move would threaten delivery of the objectives of the ‘masterplan’ that had been developed for the GSK site in Ulverston. The plan was the result of a collaboration between South Lakeland District Council and the partnership GSK Taskforce.
Councillor Andrew Jarvis, now the cabinet member for finance for the new council, told a meeting last year the Covid-19 situation had imposed changes on the project and caused delays.
He said: Having gone through a major pandemic, we know that the financial situation of our leisure centres is very different.”
This chunk of the project was to include three football pitches, a remodelled indoor tennis centre, an ‘informal running route’ and a crown green bowling green.
