Council sets out the next steps for leisure centre

ALMOST six years since a swimming pool in Newcastle closed its doors for the last time, it is now hoped that construction of its long-awaited replacement is just weeks away.

- DANIEL HOLLAND

The old Outer West Pool, in West Denton, shut at the outset of the pandemic in 2020 and never reopened.

It has since been knocked down, alongside the neighbouring customer service centre, to make way for a flagship development that has promised “state of the art” facilities for the area.

But the building of a new Outer West Leisure Centre has turned into a deeply frustrating saga, with the project plagued by spiralling prices and severe delays.

While originally scheduled to open in summer 2024, construction has not even begun on the new building.

Since it was first announced in 2021, the estimated cost of the scheme has rocketed from £22.3 million to just shy of £40 million today.

Like many major schemes backed by the Johnson Government's Levelling Up Fund (LUF), the leisure centre has been the victim of the major inflation that hit the construction industry.