Construction of Hartlepool’s new state of the art leisure centre may have stalled & may not ever get off the ground at all, after Hartlepool Matters finds council officers have quietly delayed plans for works to start, with council finance officers blaming the economic crisis & budget pressures. .
Monday 5th December 2022 11:09am
Hartlepool Matters has found that plans to build the prestigious new leisure centre on land that was formally home to a retail centre may now never get off the ground (or at least be delayed for a significant period of time), after its been found council officers have quietly DELAYED construction plans due to the current economic climate & concerns over the councils ongoing budget position.
Extract from the councils financial report set to go before councillors next week ....
(Left) The proposed new Multi Million Pound Leisure Centre & (Right) Hartlepool's current ageing leisure centre owned by HBC located in the towns Raby Rd
In a document set to go before the councils Finance & Policy committee next week, its claimed that plans for the development of the new “highlight” leisure centre located on Hartlepool’s Marina which was set to replace the towns ageing Mill House Leisure Centre has now been pushed back to an undisclosed date.
Current inflationary pressures in the councils corporate budget means that HBC's poised to report an overspend in its budget for the department looking after the plans for the waterfront development project of £0.065m.
Its claimed the councils set to use the delay in the construction of the complex to offset the budget pressures in the councils corporate department by using the funds allocated to the projects Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) pot to prop up departmental spending in other areas until the economic situation improves.
Whilst the project was previously fully costed out through grant funding provided by the Tees Valley Combined Authority & borrowing taken on by the local council in the form of loans, its claimed building materials are now significantly higher than they were before the economic crisis hit, leading to additional costs having to be incurred by the council if construction was to go ahead on the plans previously laid out before the council.
Inflation, Interest Rates & the effects on the economy due to the cost of living crisis are all said to be blamed for the increases in the council seeing in departmental overspending & is said to be putting a number of other projects at risk, leading to claims that the current inflationary pressures are now having a significant impact on the costs of building materials leading to the plans for the new leisure centre having to be put back until significant stabilisation in the economy returns & inflation begins to subside.
The curse of the Jacksons Landing strikes again....
Plans were the centrepiece of the Tory / Indi councils plans to regenerate Hartlepool Marina...., But some claim the curse of the Jacksons Landing has struck once again
Some claim the bold plans for the council to build on the former Jacksons Landing site were "doomed to fail" with he land previously home to a retail centre that stood empty for the majority of the late 90s & 2000s & claims that the previous administration of Hartlepool Borough Council squandered millions in public funds to acquire & redevelop the land for future use, with the land itself never been a good luck charm for any construction project that was put on it.
Construction of the new centre was said to be well underway by the time the Tall Ships Event was welcomed to Hartlepool in June 2023, however its now been claimed that under the current economic climate & budget pressures the councils currently facing, its reasonable to assume that potential start of construction of the areas new leisure centre will likely not see a single brick laid on the land until at least 2024/25, according to information Hartlepool Matters has received from a source close to the local council itself, with the "jewel in the crown" that was poised to be the centrepiece of Hartlepool's transformation looking to be the latest victim of cutbacks incurred by a local council that's now very much looking like its borrowed itself onto the path of bankruptcy.
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