Joy As Waterworld Won’t Have £12 Million Replacement
An iconic building in the town looks set for an extended future as the once promised Waterworld replacement has been officially ruled out.
Today councillors expressed happiness at unanimously approving recommendations to retain the Waterworld Leisure Centre, rather than knock it down and replace it, and also begin the process of searching for an existing Trust to take over and manage some of the Council’s leisure obligations.
The future of Waterworld has been up in the air for over 12 months, with proposals initially put forward by consultants to demolish the leisure centre and replace the facility with a state of the art development.
However in February 2015 Lead Member for Communities, Partnerships & Collaboration, Cllr Hugh Jones announced that funding for a new leisure facility in the town centre was no longer ‘affordable’ in the current economic climate in light of budgets dictated from Cardiff and Westminster.
During the meeting Cllr Jones told the Executive Board that three main decisions were being put forward, along with three admin support decisions – adding that he can positively recommend keeping Waterworld open for the foreseeable future
The three ‘main’ decisions put forward to members were: The future of Waterworld and whether to replace or keep it, the approve the retention of dual-use leisure centres and to approve the criteria in the tendering of a Trust.
Speaking about the report, Cllr Hugh Jones said: “In terms of Waterworld it is important to put this into context. There was a report in September 2012 and at that time we anticipated we would have to save £34m over a five year period.
“The demand for savings from the Welsh Government has increased over the intervening period and we are now in a position where we have to save £45m over a three year period. It is a substantial change in the financial environment plus there have been a number of ancillary developments. First that Plas Madoc is now successfully operational and Total Fitness has reopened with significant facilities.”
Cllr Jones added: “The third major decision is to agree the criteria for the potential trust against which they will be judged.
“This will give us a clear way forward and we will have Waterworld on our books and operational for the foreseeable future. We can continue with Bodhyfryd planning in the knowledge Waterworld will be a part of it.”
The decision to keep the leisure centre open was welcomed by both members of the Executive Board and councillors present, with much being made of ‘retaining’ the centre despite no option being put forward to not retain it as the demolition option would only have resulted in an improvement.
Cllr David Bithell said: “There has been a lot of focus placed on leisure centres. I think the lead member is right, the financial situation over the last 12 months has changed dramatically. In light of that, this gives an opportunity for retaining Waterworld.
“I think the report gives that opportunity, even though it is via a Trust to ensure that the for next 15-20 years we have a leisure centre in the County Borough.”
Along with retaining Waterworld members of the Executive Board also approved proposals to preserve dual-use leisure centres in Wrexham.
The recommendation was welcomed by Cllr Joan Lowe who said: “This is a major step forward. I would further like to comment on how pleased I am we are retaining our dual use halls. They give many clubs opportunities and and it’s so vital we give everyone the opportunities to live a healthy lifestyle. To retain dual use centres I feel is a vital plus,”
The comments made by Cllr Lowe appeared to be well received with one member of the public gallery giving a spontaneous round of applause.
However the varying leisure reports were called into question by some councillors, with Kevin Blackwell saying: “I don’t honestly believe that replacing Waterworld was ever affordable. I am somewhat confused in as much as we have had two contradictory reports.
“One report said Waterworld was about to fall down and the other is now saying with some maintenance that it will give us another twenty years.
Speaking about the two reports, Cllr Jones said: “In terms of maintenance, what happened originally was the policy of the council to replace Waterworld and therefore at that stage a relatively cursory inspection was carried out.”
“It became clear to myself that we couldn’t replace Waterworld and asked officers to carry out an in depth survey on Waterworld on what the risk were.
“In terms of the trust what Atkins et al have done is a soft market testing in terms of an existing trust, before we could move forward need to be clear if Waterworld was going to be retained or not. Now we will be able to identify trusts that are interested in taking these on.”
The decision to not replace Waterworld with a new facility and to approve the tender evaluation criteria for a Trust was passed unanimously by the Executive Board.
Out ‘live tweets’ from the meeting are recorded below, which noted that some Councillors still appeared to be confused about the destination of previously discussed savings from Plas Madoc, which some thought (including it appears a Lead Member) was to be used to fund a replacement Waterworld.
Positive words from Cllrs on retaining Waterworld, nothing yet on how some thought Plas Madoc £ was ring fenced http://t.co/DBrrydWl8v
— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) April 14, 2015
Cllr Kevin Hughes says hes confused how one consultants report can say Waterworld is ‘about to fall down’ & another says its fine for awhile
— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) April 14, 2015
Cllr Hugh Jones says first inspection was ‘relatively cursory’ and the second was ‘in depth’ and thus the differing views of the reports.
— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) April 14, 2015
Cllr Jenkins refers to Plas Madoc / Waterworld £ ring fencing saying ‘definite promise recorded at the time’ that has ‘since disappeared’
— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) April 14, 2015
Clr Hugh Jones says ‘money did not disappear’ in terms of Plas Madoc savings earmarked for Waterworld replacement ( http://t.co/DBrrydWl8v )
— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) April 14, 2015
Clr King refers as well to ‘misinformation’ to state of buildings in reports. Chair prompts for a Q, Mr King says he ‘can also comment’!
— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) April 14, 2015
Clr Jones challenges Clr King on saying reports were ‘substantially wrong’, citing differences in terms of reference and the conclusions.
— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) April 14, 2015
Clr Dutton asks if aspiration is there for an olympic sized pool in Wrexham, told yes aspiration is but money is not.
— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) April 14, 2015
VOTE: Waterworld will be kept & kept open, likely via a yet to be appointed Trust, but will not be replaced as there is no money to do so.
— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) April 14, 2015
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