Stokewood revamp delay over asbestos

7:00pm Friday 8th August 2008

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ASBESTOS has been discovered in Bournemouth's Stokewood Leisure Centre.

A survey discovered white and blue asbestos in the basement and plant room of the building.

Some of the planned demolition and refurbishment work has been delayed at least two months and the job will cost an extra £20,000.

Members have been given the choice of freezing their membership, or using Littledown Leisure Centre in the meantime.

Peter Brown, Bournemouth Council's leisure facilities manager, said: "I would like to assure everyone the small and contained levels of asbestos present absolutely no risk to any member of the public or our staff."

The Leisure Centre is undergoing a £310,000 refurbishment to double the size of the gym and to build a new studio for exercise and spinning classes.

The gym closed at the end of July and was due to reopen on September 29.

Getting a licence to remove the asbestos from the Health and Safety Executive takes at least two weeks, there is a delay of one more week due to high demand for asbestos removal services, and the work is expected to take another four weeks.

A council spokesman said: "As a result we have now scheduled for the refurbished gym and new studio to open together on January 5, 2009."

Mr Brown thanked the public for their on-going support and patience.

Stokewood Road will still host fitness classes, the Early Years programme and swimming during the refurbishment.

The contractors needed to break through the gym floor to create an access point into the basement, the site of the new exercise studio.

The work required a mandatory asbestos survey, which discovered the material.