Delays to a leisure centre growth in London have been blamed on guidelines round election-time funding.
Kingston Council mentioned that “strict guidelines round the usage of council sources” within the weeks operating as much as an election meant it was unable to push ahead with plans to switch the previous Kingfisher Leisure Centre till after the election.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak referred to as the election for 4 July, that means public engagement on the leisure centre has been postponed from the top of Could to the center of July.
The council has additionally provide you with a brand new design for the mission, after hovering prices forced it to rethink its plans final 12 months.
The Kingfisher Leisure Centre was pressured to shut in 2019 as a result of structural roof issues.
The council initially budgeted £39.6m for a brand new leisure centre on the identical web site, however revealed final 12 months that the mission worth had risen to £79.5m.
It branded the price enhance “extraordinary”, blaming inflation in development materials prices, labour costs, vitality prices and “stretched provide chains”.
To fight the price overrun, the council scrapped the unique plans and decreased the brand new constructing’s measurement from 5 to 2 storeys, which it mentioned ought to cut back the price to £44.5m.
Dutch contractor and leisure specialist Pellikaan was named the council’s development companion within the new-look plans. The agency was introduced on board early within the course of to “give higher assurances round prices and programme”, the council mentioned final week in an announcement.
The council had deliberate to submit a planning utility this autumn after the general public engagement course of, but it surely has now refused to say when the applying will likely be filed.
“We are going to verify the revised dates and methods to get entangled after the overall election has taken place,” it mentioned in a web-based assertion.
