Progress pledge after delays to leisure complex

IMMINENT progress has been promised on the building of a long-awaited new leisure centre in Newcastle.

- DANIEL HOLLAND Local democracy reporter

Amid mounting frustration over delays to the planned Outer West Leisure Centre in West Denton, council chiefs now say that essential works holding up the project should start this month.

The area has been without a swimming pool since the old Outer West Pool, which has since been demolished, was shut at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Its intended replacement, a “state-of-the-art” sports and leisure facility on the site in West Denton Way, was meant to open in summer 2024.

But construction is yet to even start on the multimillion-pound complex, which has suffered from a series of setbacks, and its target opening date has now been pushed back until late 2027.

Newcastle City Council said in August that the latest issue blocking the development was the discovery of a high-voltage cable which needs to be moved, while local councillors have bemoaned a “void of information” surrounding the scheme as residents fear it will never come to fruition.