'Naysayers' urged to back Hartlepool following new leisure centre criticism

Councillors have urged "naysayers" to get behind positive developments in Hartlepool to help provide a boost to the town.
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It came as elected members noted numerous negative comments online following the reveal of what Highlight – the town’s planned new multi-million pound leisure facility on the Waterfront – will look like.

Councillors at this week’s economic growth and regeneration committee stressed the importance of everyone getting behind the town, especially when positive opportunities arise.

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Cllr Pamela Hargreaves, speaking at Tuesday’s meeting, said she “genuinely didn’t think there would be so many negative comments about such a positive thing”.

How the proposed leisure centre will look.How the proposed leisure centre will look.
How the proposed leisure centre will look.

The Labour councillor said: “We’ve got additional investment in there to build this amazing thing and smarten up all that area.

“But the naysayer comments: it’ll never happen, it’s not going to do this, it’ll just be this, why haven’t we got that.

“You can’t do right for doing wrong, we really do have to try somehow to overturn this negativity that people have about everything.”

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Labour’s Councillor Ben Clayton noted residents have seen past plans for the site not come to fruition and stressed the importance of the council now delivering .

Hartlepool borough councillor Pamela Hargreaves.Hartlepool borough councillor Pamela Hargreaves.
Hartlepool borough councillor Pamela Hargreaves.

He said: “I understand some of the public scepticism because of the amount of artists’ impressions we’ve had of that site that have been made public and never come to anything.

“We need to work on that and ensure this does go forward and it does meet expectations because that will change their minds.”

Council chiefs stressed they have been keen to ensure everything is in place before progressing with further announcements.

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Conservative Councillor Mike Young said: “I think that’s something that we’ve been very careful not to do, until we’ve had the money in place, we’ve then gone to the architects, we’ve done the process in a more structured way.

“We need to deliver it and make sure it’s exactly what we say it’s going to be.”

An application for planning permission is now expected to go before the council’s planning committee this summer.

The discussion came after the committee received a presentation looking at plans for economic growth in the town.

Cllr Rob Cook added: “People will knock us no matter what we do, no matter what happens there’ll always be that element out there, but we have got to be positive.”