'Void of information' over long-awaited leisure site

IRATE councillors in the outer west of Newcastle have demanded an end to the "void of information" surrounding an unbuilt leisure centre.

- By DANIEL HOLLAND Local Democracy Reporter

The new Outer West Leisure Centre in West Denton was supposed to open in summer 2024, but construction is yet to even start on the multi-million pound complex.

Newcastle City Council said last month that the facility is now unlikely to be completed until late 2027, the latest in a series of delayed target dates. The presence of a high-voltage cable beneath the site in West Denton Way has been named as the current blockage afflicting the long-awaited development, the expected cost of which has spiralled.

While local authority chiefs have repeatedly insisted that the £34million facility will not be abandoned, independent councillor Marc Donnelly told a full council meeting on Wednesday night that residents now fear the sports centre will never arrive.

The Chapel ward councillor successfully passed a motion demanding that the council create a dedicated webpage to regularly update on the project's status and provide timescales for building work "so that residents can have some confidence".