New council HQ could be ready by spring of 2028

WORK on a £59million new leisure centre and headquarters for a Derbyshire council on a former mining site could start next September.

- By EDDIE BISKNELL

South Derbyshire District Council officials have told the Derby Telegraph that a planning application for its planned new HQ and leisure centre on the former Cadley Hill Colliery in Swadlincote will be submitted in December, ready for public consultation in January.

Ahead of that, a public consultation event will be held at Green Bank Leisure Centre and at Swadlincote Town Hall from 7am to 7pm on Tuesday, November 25.

Officials hope for a three-to-four month wait for the plans to be decided by councillors - due to it being the authority's own application - before hopefully starting work on the site in September 2026 and an intended completion date of spring 2028.

Plans being drawn up by the council currently show a building which is mostly two storeys in height, with parts which are three storeys tall.

The leisure centre and council headquarters complex would be built to the east of the current Tetron Way entry road to Coronation Park and the driving range, off William Nadin Way.

It would be built on what is currently the driving range’s car park and grassland to the south, bordering a small pond and river.

If approved, the plans would see the existing pond widened into a small lake, which would take on the drainage requirements of the proposed development.