Essential works to take place at Bedford's leisure facilities as 1,100 issues identified

Surveys of Bedford Borough Council’s leisure estate have identified 1,100 issues that need to be addressed, a meeting heard.

To start to address these, an Extraordinary Full Council Meeting was held last night (December 18) to update the capital programme to ensure that “essential works” can be carried out.

This followed a vote at last month’s Full Meeting when the administration’s capital programme was sent back to the Executive for “further work”.

The portfolio holder for finance, risk & welfare, councillor Graeme Coombes (Conservative, Wixams & Wilstead) said: “The purpose of this [meeting] is to ask for support from Full Council to update the capital programme to include £3.95 million to enable essential works to be carried out at sites across the council’s leisure estate.

“Members will be aware that the current contract with Fusion Lifestyle ends on January 31.

“As part of the procurement process for a new provider, comprehensive condition surveys and health and safety inspections have been carried out.

“These identified a number of issues that need to be addressed to ensure that the sites are compliant and in good operation to avoid the need for site closures under the new contract,” he said.

“Some of the sites were in quite a poor state of repair, and based on the assessments carried out amounts to more than 1,100 issues that need to be addressed over a two-year period.

“There are, however, some works that need to be carried out urgently to avoid, as far as possible, the need for sites to be closed.

“We’re all aware of the long and turbulent history of our leisure sites, but there really is a risk that if we do not pass this report tonight then continuity of service may be severely affected,” he said.

Liberal Democrat group leader, councillor Henry Vann (De Parys) moved a joint Labour/LibDem amendment to add capital projects that “are hugely important.”

“The urgency of the GP estate, for example,” he said.

“We need to get that Primary Care Estate back in there, be it the health hub in Kempston, but also Wixams, Wootton and Great Barford,” he added.

The amendment motion was agreed, which means in addition to the leisure estate repairs, plans for investment in GP centres, the Muslim burial ground and town centre rejuvenation are also included in the capital programme.