Concerns raised over costs and timescales for multi-million pound plans to overhaul County Durham’s leisure centres

The plans range from refurbishments to new-builds and are intended to help regeneration, Covid recovery and people’s health.

Refurbishments and improvements are planned for Seaham, Peterlee and Chester-le-Street, as well as Durham City’s Freeman’s Quay and Abbey facilities and others across the county.

But concerns have been raised about the expected costs and timescales of the project.

“£78 million - but there’s no designs,” Cllr Bill Moist told Durham County Council’s Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

“This was first floated in 2019. When is it going be delivered?

"Are we going to be sitting here in 2025 saying it’s going to come in 2027?

“People are asking, when is this going to happen?”

Plans for the overhaul of facilities were originally unveiled in 2020, under the local authority’s former Labour administration, which lost power last year to a coalition of Conservative, Liberal Democrat and independent county councillors.

The scheme, to replace ‘ageing and outdated’ leisure centres was given the green light in 2021, by which point projected costs had ballooned from £62.8 million to £78 million.

Alison Clark, the local authority’s head of culture, sport and tourism, insisted an “immense amount of work” had gone into the programme so far, including a “highly comprehensive cost plan”.

She told the panel: “We expect most of the refurb projects to be on site within 2022 and 2023.

“Some of them are already on site or certainly they are in the design stage, and that is all going to plan.”

She added construction industry issues linked to Brexit, inflation and the war in Ukraine were “more difficult to manage”.

Labour councillor Eddy Adam, who chaired the committee while his own party ran the county council and announced the original policy, said more costs were “clearly coming through the pipeline” and questioned where the money would come from.

He called reported construction price increases of 16% to 23% in 2020 to 2021 “a bit scary”.

Asked about a proposed centre in Seaham - which has previously been earmarked for a ‘dual site’ scheme which would see a new leisure centre built at St John’s Square and the current Seaham Leisure Centre, in Deneside, converted to outdoor sports facilities - Ms Clark said a report would be due in the coming months.

New leisure centres are also set to be built in Bishop Auckland and Chester-le-Street.

Final design work will now be carried out for Abbey, Peterlee, Spennymoor and Teesdale leisure centres.

They will be refurbished with facilities like fitness and wellbeing suites, exercise studios, cafes, soft play and better changing facilities, along with other upgrades and improvements.

Peterlee will add ten pin bowling and “cyber towers”, while Spennymoor will bring in a library and improved water play.

Durham’s Abbey Leisure Centre could also gain a sauna and steam room, following consultation.

Improvement projects will start in the next year and a report is expected to be presented to council leaders in the ruling cabinet later this year.

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