A call to back feasibility funding which may ultimately see new leisure centres in both Milford Haven and Pembroke, as well as a multi-million grant to keep Tenby’s pool running for at least a decade, has been backed by senior councillors.
At the March 16 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet, members were asked to approve a leisure investment programme including feasibility funding for new leisure centres in Pembroke and Milford Haven, along with works at Tenby leisure centre, with the aim of extending the lifespan of the trust-run swimming pool by at least 10 years.
A report for members said of Pembroke and Tenby leisure centres that “the advancing age of the buildings, combined with the end-of-life cycle of a number of key components, has now resulted in the need for a significant replacement programme across both sites”.
To replace Tenby pool on its current footprint would be approximately £27.47m, with efforts to identify a viable alternative site within the town’s catchment area unsuccessful.
For Pembroke Leisure Centre, it says costs to extend the lifespan of the 1974-built pool by 10 years would be £8,288,418.
For Milford Haven Leisure Centre, the report said a condition survey “highlights significant areas that require attention, including, for example, building structure (metal cladding, roof) and mechanical and electrical works,” with an estimated cost over a 30-year period to address all findings at some £12,677,279, £5.6m of that over the next four years.
For Tenby, the aim is to extend its lifespan by at least a decade, with a grant to the charitable trust running the pool.
Members backed a long string of recommendations, subject to future decisions of Cabinet in accordance with the governance arrangements in the Capital Strategy to approve individual projects and put them into the capital programme.
For Pembroke this includes a detailed feasibility study for a new-build Leisure Centre in Pembroke, on the current school site, providing a feasibility budget of £195,000 from reserves.
For Milford Haven, members backed £1.2m (at risk) in the capital programme to develop a high-level leisure brief into the tender of the new English Medium primary and secondary school project in Milford Haven, and the pre-construction services to develop the project designs (to RIBA 4, Detailed Design) for a new leisure centre at the same time as the school.
For Tenby, members backed a grant of £4,606,667 to the Tenby and District Swimming Pool Association, as owner of the asset, for works to extend the lifespan of the current swimming pool by at least 10 years.
Members also backed other recommendations including £50,000 from reserves to procure external funding consultants to identify and secure as much funding as possible towards the delivery of the investment programme, and to establish a leisure operations review board to undertake a formal review of the leisure services operating model.
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