Cash released to improve gym

7:00pm Sunday 11th January 2009

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A MAKE-OVER for Verwood Leisure Centre costing more than £27,000 has been approved by district chiefs.

Maintenance work both to the inside and outside of the Chiltern Drive facility could start within months after councillors voted to release money set aside to extend the centre for an overhaul instead.

The male changing rooms will undergo a £6,000 upgrade and just over £5,000 has been allocated for improvements to first floor rooms housing CV equipment and sun beds, among other changes.

“We’re pleased that the work has been given the go-ahead. People look around for the best prices and the best product,” said centre assistant manager Garry Francis.

“We’re confident that our new gym equipment is the best product and the maintenance programme will bring the building into line with those facilities,” he added.

But members of East Dorset District Council’s policy and resources committee were divided on the principle of spending money allocated to extend the centre on maintaining it.

More than £122,500 was set aside by councillors towards the cost of extending the centre, but plans are on hold while the nearby Morrisons works on proposals for its store.

District council leader Cllr Spencer Flower told committee members the revamp was vital to the centre’s long term future.

“In the short term, we need to maintain the viability of the leisure centre. There is potential for significant planning gain if Morrisons redevelop this site.”

He warned that the sum under discussion was likely to be dwarfed by maintenance costs for Wimborne’s Queen Elizabeth leisure centre, estimated at nearly £1m over the next seven years. But other members of the committee disagreed.

Cllr Anne Holland, said: “I’m not happy that this money is being used. If an item in the capital programme isn’t going to happen, the money should be returned to the capital pot and used for other projects.”