Fate of £35m sports village to be decided (From Echo)

Fate of £35m sports village to be decided

9:00am Saturday 4th July 2009 in

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THE fate of Basildon’s £35m sporting village at Gloucester Park will be decided at a council meeting later this month.

Basildon councillors will thrash out how, and if, the project can go ahead in the current economic climate.

Basildon Council has already said building work, originally due to start this summer, will be delayed until at least September.

Council leader Tony Ball admitted the recession had affected the plan to create a training complex in time for the 2012 Olympics, but remained confident funding would be found.

The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 29.

Mr Ball said: “A decision will be made then about how we’re going to fund it. We will be discussing all the options. Since we started with these plans we’ve had the recession and things are different now.”.

In order to raise cash, the council plans to sell assets including Markhams Chase Leisure Centre, Laindon, and land at Cranes Farm Road, which currently houses the South Essex gymnastic centre.

Mr Ball confirmed there were bidders interested in both sites.

However Lib Dem councillor Geoff Williams, who sits on the planning committee, doubts bidders will offer enough.

He said: “Things are going to be much more difficult in the current economic climate. It will be interesting to see how many bidders there are and how much they’re actually bidding.”

Mr Williams also said he feared the council’s eagerness to build the project could lead them into trouble.

He said: “The council needs to be very careful about who it sells the land to. In the past things have not exactly produced the right result for the council – I’m thinking of the golf course.”

A further potential funding problem is posed by the existence of a clawback agreement affecting some of the land at Cranes Farm Road.

This means whatever price the council sells the land for, the Government will be entitled to 75 per cent.

Mr Ball said the council was in talks with the Homes and Communities Agency, which oversees the land for the Government, to see if the money could be re-invested into the project.

He said: “Only a very small proportion of the land is affected by clawback and it does not have a major impact on the funding of the project.

“We are working with the agency on the re-investment of this clawback. It is extremely supportive of the project having committed £5million to it already.”

The sports and fitness complex at Gloucester Park would contain a 50m swimming pool, six floodlit football pitches and a new athletics stand.

The developer Community Solutions for Leisure is due to undertake the work, with funding pledged by various organisations. Essex County Council has pledged £5m, Sport England, £500,000, and Veolia ES Cleanaway Marshes Trust, £500,000 and £5m from the Government.

Outline planning permission was granted for the complex in March.