The council is undertaking emergency talks with Sports England
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Bedworth's new leisure centre has been hit by delays as the costs have spiralled to £34 million. Initially the new Physical Activity Hub and new features in the Miners Welfare Park was supposed to cost £27m.
The new facility, which will replace the ageing leisure centre, was also due to be open in late 2024. But now it has emerged that the costs have now hit £34m, therefore meaning the start date has been delayed and therefore it will not be ready to open in December 2024 as first thought.
Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council previously admitted that it faced a' 'huge challenge' to ensure it was built on time and also on budget, and has now admitted that the project is way behind.
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It is now working with Sports England, one of the major funders of the project, on what is known as a 'value engineering' exercise to try and get the project back on track. The latest council Business, Regeneration and Planning Overview and Scrutiny Panel (OSP) agenda explains the situation, saying: "As with many projects at this time, there has been a significant increase in costs due to high inflation, with supply chain, fuel and utilities also continuing to increase which is subsequently impacting on the construction industry and ability to confirm fixed cost pricing.
"This has created a funding gap and there is now a comprehensive value engineering exercise taking place to establish how the scope and specification of the project can be amended to bring the costs within budget. This value engineering exercise is being supported by Sport England through their professional team and providing experience and knowledge from many other leisure construction projects across the country, to ensure quality and value for money is being received.
"It is worth noting that any value engineering, also has to be approved by the external funders if it changes the original outcomes detailed in NBBC’s funding submissions.
"Due to the value engineering exercise which will identify the overall costs, affordability and future viability, there will be a delay to the project start and end date. These are being worked through for the overall programme for delivery which was profiled for completion in December 2024."
No new estimated costs or start or completion date will be known until the 'value engineering' exercise has taken place.
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