£850k grant to save leisure centre a step closer

A council in Lincolnshire has voted to use £850,000 from its own reserves to help reopen a leisure centre.

The Deepings Leisure Centre in Deeping St James closed in July 2021 after a faulty roof raised health and safety concerns.

A local community enterprise is trying to raise the £2.2m it says it needs to refurbish the building.

The final decision on whether to give the grant will be made by the council's Executive Cabinet.

Councillors urged to 'be heroes'

In 2022 South Kesteven District Council announced the closure was permanent, saying it could not afford the quoted £10.5m to repair the building.

The Deepings Community Leisure Centre Community Interest Company (CIC) was created to try to save it.

The CIC is asking for a one-off grant of £850,000 from the council and intends to raise the rest of the £2.2m from other sources including parish councils, a local charity and Lincolnshire County Council.

Earlier this week, South Kesteven District Council deputy leader and member for Deeping St James, Cllr Ashley Baxter, told fellow councillors that they "can be heroes with this, if they take it forward and enable it to happen".

“I am confident that there will be a big take-up from day one,” he told an extraordinary meeting of South Kesteven's finance and culture and leisure overview and scrutiny committees.

'Too many risks'

The closure has “had a detrimental impact on the local community” with previous users having to travel to Bourne, Grantham or Stamford, according to a report by council officers.

It also warns councillors refurbishments and running costs could exceed those being quoted and projected user numbers may be "overstated", causing the centre to fail.

Cllr Paul Wood told this week's meeting: "I think there's too many risks and I don't think £2.2m is enough to deliver a good leisure centre."

Cllr Virginia Moran, who chairs Deepings Community Leisure Centre CIC and is also a district councillor, told the meeting that the £2.2m figure has been calculated "from written quotations from local suppliers".

"We also have the benefit of several companies doing large items of the work at cost," she added.

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