Planning application for new leisure centre in Bransbury Park in Portsmouth expected to be submitted next year

Councillor Steve Pitt said budget pressures had delayed progress on the project but he added that detailed designs are now being drawn up and that he was 'confident' there was now a 'deliverable scheme'.

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'This has taken longer than planned as we must ensure we have a deliverable project that fits the planned cost envelope,' he said in response to a question from councillor George Fielding at Tuesday's (December 6) full council meeting. 'Various factors impact on that, not least the increase in borrowing costs since the catastrophic mini budget of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, but also the worldwide impact of post-Covid, post-Brexit, war-in-Ukraine supply chain issues, driving up raw material costs and inflationary pressures in the wider economy.'

He said discussions had been held with both Sport England and Swim England about grant funding but any financial contributions were still unknown.

The new leisure centre - the 'core elements' for which, Cllr Pitt said, were: a swimming pool, a learner pool, a gym, a café and a sports hall - is being proposed to replace Eastney Swimming Pool, Wimbledon Park Sport Centre and the Pyramids swimming pool.

However, plans to incorporate Eastney Community Centre in the building have been scrapped, a move he said would bring 'significant savings' and that remaining in the current building had been supported by Eastney Area Community Association.

The most recent cost estimate to the council for the project, provided at the start of the year, was £16m - £5m over the original forecast given when it was first mooted.

The plan was originally unveiled in January 2021, and backed by a residents’ survey which found 63 per cent of 1,800 respondents wanting the new centre at Bransbury Park, with 22 per cent objecting to the idea.

Last month, the council launched a consultation to gauge opinions on what community facilities the leisure centre should have on top of the sporting provision.

Cllr Pitt said work to draw up detailed designs for the new facility, alongside technical information needed for an application to be submitted, would begin in two weeks. The council had considered a tensile membrane construction but ruled that out due to 'insurance risks' and the centre will instead be a more traditional building.

However, in wake of the delays and rising costs of the project, Cllr Fielding said it had been 'shortsighted of the council to close the two swimming pools 'prior to any meaningful progress' being made on their replacement.

Cllr Pitt said the two 'aged' pools needed to be closed and that it was an 'unfortunate occurence' that problems had arisen before the new leisure centre was built.

'Spending millions more to prop it up, because ultimately it's a failing building, would have been folly,' he said. 'It's not the business of a council to run a swimming pool that's more like a museum than a leisure centre.'