The council is on track with its revised timetable and has made swift progress to design a new, affordable leisure centre for Kingston town centre.
The leisure centre will deliver the range of activities that residents and stakeholders said they wanted to see, in a modern and sustainable two-storey building. Accessibility and inclusivity remain key features of the design, with new pedestrian links and landscaped spaces throughout the scheme.
Alongside the unveiling of the new designs by award-winning architects Roberts Limbrick, construction experts, Pellikaan, have also been announced as the construction partners for the project. In a significant change from the previous project, Pellikaan has been brought on board much earlier in the process to give better assurances around costs and programme as the project progresses to completion. The project continues to be overseen by Alliance Leisure, utilising the UK Leisure Framework to bring on board a team of high quality consultants for the scheme.
The design reflects comments received from communities across the borough, as well as advice from the Design Review Panel and local planning authority. The council is now hosting the last set of engagement events before it looks to submit a planning application for the scheme in Autumn 2024.
Cllr Alison Holt, Portfolio Holder for for Economic Development & Leisure, said:
“The unveiling of the designs, and securing of a construction partner, both mark significant milestones in delivering a leisure centre that meets the highest standards of quality, sustainability and accessibility.
“We are going through all of the necessary processes to bring the project forward as quickly as possible, and this will be one of the final chances for people to give feedback as we look to submit the required planning application in the coming months.
“Thank you to all of those who have provided feedback on the project to date. These designs are exciting, and I encourage everyone to come along to an event, or take a look at the website to see what will be created here in the coming years.”
UPDATE FOLLOWING GENERAL ELECTION CALL
We were excited and ready to show everyone the revised designs for the leisure centre for Kingston town centre from 30 May 2024.
Now that a general election has been announced on 4 July 2024, we will need to postpone the scheduled events and online engagement that were due to take place, as there are strict rules around the use of council resources during the period running up to an election.
We are very sorry for the short notice. We will now be opening the online engagement on 8 July and are in the process of rescheduling the drop in events to happen week commencing 15 July. We will confirm the revised dates and how to get involved after the general election has taken place.