West Suffolk Council's cabinet set to consider £2m upgrade at Brandon Leisure Centre
Brandon Leisure Centre could be in line for a £2 million upgrade if councillors give the thumbs up to proposals next week.
West Suffolk Council’s cabinet will be asked on Tuesday to approve investing almost £2 million in the complex, which would see improved fitness facilities and community health services provided at the site.
The plans include:
- Improved café and waiting area
- Gym relocation
- New studio
- Shapemaster suite
- Improved changing facilities
- Treatment rooms
- Office space
- Changing Places toilet
West Suffolk Council has worked with Abbeycroft Leisure, which manages its five leisure centres, and Alliance Leisure, which would deliver the Brandon project, on the successful £1.6 million upgrade of Haverhill Leisure Centre in 2018 and the £1.8 million upgrade of Newmarket Leisure Centre in spring 2020.
In February this year, £99,000 was agreed to progress cost certainty work to plan the project and to give a fixed cost for the council.
The cost of the project would be met from West Suffolk Council’s leisure investment fund, set up in 2016, which allocated £1.6 million to the upgrade, and £300,000 from the council’s growth fund to develop the rentable space that could be occupied by community health practitioners.
Michelle Glass, associate director Community Services for West Suffolk Foundation Trust and lead for Brandon said: “This is a great example how working together can achieve something that would otherwise be very difficult.”
Community health professionals are already based at West Suffolk House, in Bury St Edmunds. There are plans to co-locate to the new Mildenhall Hub when it is completed later this year and eventually in the new Bury Western Way development.
Warren Smyth, Abbeycroft Leisure chief executive, said: “This project has Brandon residents’ health at its heart.”
If the project is given the green light, it is hoped work could start in November and be complete by September 2021.
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