More than £300,000 to be spent on changing room refurbishments at three leisure centres and a sports stadium

Members of South Kesteven District Council’s (SKDC) cabinet have awarded a £321,222 contract to Northdown Property Services Limited for six months – with the option to extend the contract for a further six if required – to carry out the repairs.

This contract is broken down as £80,829 for Bourne Leisure Centre, £72,032 to Stamford Leisure Pool, £92,962 to Grantham Meres Leisure Centre and £75,399 to South Kesteven Sports Stadium.

The improvement works will include servicing and repair of changing cubicles, ceiling tile and grid replacements, lighting upgrades, door replacements and replacement taps, mirrors and dispenser units.

At a meeting on Tuesday, May 5, deputy leader of SKDC, Paul Stokes (Independent – Grantham Arnoldfield) said: “This council recognises the need to invest in each of the centres to continue to provide a positive customer experience.

“As such, the leisure investment reserve has been established to facilitate this.

“Members of the finance and economic overview scrutiny committee have previously endorsed the £500,000 funding allocation for phase one of the programme – which is targeted at selective refurbishment of each of the changing room facilities across all centres.”

The council has warned that there could be some disruption at each of the facilities while these improvements are carried out, but said it was carefully assessing the possible impact in order to keep it to a minimum.

The refurbishments are part of a £1 million budget aimed at refurbishing the equipment and changing rooms at each of the faciliites – with £500,000 allocated for the first phase of the improvements – and a further £500,000 allocated towards a second phase.

SKDC said the improvements were less than the anticipated £500,000 budget it allocated towards the first phase of project, meaning it will be able to carry forward £162,778 to a second phase of improvements to these leisure centres, which will take place at a later date.

But Richard Wyles, deputy chief executive, explained that the money which the council carries forward for the second phase of improvements may reduce if any additional issues are identified while the works are ongoing.

He added: “The reason for that is because, with the contractor on location, it may be through our contract management we do identify opportunities for further works to be undertaken that hadn’t been initially identified.

“With the contractor there, there’s obviously a perfect opportunity to get those works done at the same time to avoid delay in them having to come back as part of phase two or any subsequent phasing.”