Hopes for leisure centre funding boost

A grant application of more than £1 million will be made by Chesterfield Borough Council to fund extra facilities at the proposed new Queen’s Park Sports Centre.

An expression of interest to Sport England’s Strategic Facilities Fund has been successful and the council has now been formally invited to submit a full application.

A decision on whether the bid will be successful or not is expected to be made by Sport England’s board in the summer.

If funding is granted, it will enable the council to add extra facilities requested by users, the public and sports groups during the public consultations.

This could include increasing the number of lanes in the swimming pool from six to eight and adding two more courts to create an eight court sports hall, which would enable a wider range of sporting activities to take place at the same time.

Councillor Amanda Serjeant, Chesterfield Borough Council’s executive member for leisure, culture and tourism, said:-

“We said from day one of this project that we would be seeking to make grant applications that could enable us to add more facilities as soon as we were at the stage in the process that enables us to do this.

“The application will have to be considered by Sport England against other worthy bids so there are no guarantees of success.

“But we are pleased that Sport England recognised the local importance of this project and its potential to contribute to their community sport objectives when they supported us in the expressions of interest stage of the process.

“We believe we can put forward a really good and convincing bid as the grant would enable us to deliver an even better leisure centre that inspires more Chesterfield residents to get fit, active and healthy.”

Sport England’s Strategic Facilities Fund offers grants of up to £2 million for local authority projects that bring together multiple partners, including input from the public and private sectors. The fund is also designed to encourage applicants and their partners to invest further capital and revenue funding to ensure sustainability.

It is expected a decision on the planning application for the replacement Queen’s Park Sports Centre can be made within the next couple of months.

If the bid to Sport England is successful the grant funding would be added to the money already committed to the building by Chesterfield Borough Council and Chesterfield College.

Source:Chesterfield Borough Council