COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

The iconic elephant-shaped building at Coventry Sports Centre could be flattened if plans to build a brand new £36million centre go ahead.



Coventry City Council officials have announced their desire to replace the Fairfax Street centre, built in 1966, after it revealed the existing site was haemorrhaging cash – costing taxpayers around £2,000 a day to keep open.

The new venue is expected to be built in the city centre on the current site of the council building Spire House, at the junction of New Union Street and Greyfriars Lane, which will be vacated as part of the council move to Friargate .

Despite being much smaller, at 6,500sq m, the new centre is expected to use space much more efficiently and would include a water park with slides, a gym, a 25-metre swimming pool, climbing wall, squash courts and a spa.

The new centre is hoped to be operational by 2019 and the council plans to keep the existing 17,000sq m site open until that time, costs permitting.

It is uncertain what will become of the Fairfax Street centre once closed as the existing building containing the 50metre Olympic-size swimming pool is Grade II listed.

But the adjoining annexe, known as the elephant building and built in 1977 to reflect the city’s coat of arms, is not listed and could be demolished following the transition.

David Nuttall, the city council’s service manager for sports, said the council would consult people about the future of the old building.

He said: “We will invite those at English Heritage to come and have a chat with us about what the value of the building might be, because it certainly isn’t fit for purpose as a sports facility.

“Part of the next five years will be consulting about that existing building and determining what the future holds for it.

“We will be consulting on the new building. We are trying to create something new and iconic, something that stands out.”

Further financial savings and a reprieve for the existing venue are unlikely with the cost of operating the site already brought down from almost £1m-a-year in 2010.

Large parts of the centre are already unusable – with squash courts flooded, diving boards closed due to safety concerns and redundant facilities like public baths closed off.

Paul Breed, chief executive of Coventry Sports Foundation which assists with the operation of the site, said: “At the current site we are spending large amounts of money just making things safe, not usable again.

“We have got to a stage where we simply keep going as long as we can and then inevitably close this site, or we divert the funds used for that to make sure we have a better and more accessible facility. We should not be propping up facilities which are unfit for purpose.”

Council officials predict the number of annual visits to a new leisure centre to rise to around 1.3million a year from around 800,000 at the current site.

The council is expected to seek financial support for the project from the likes of national governing bodies of sport and European funding.

Timeline of Coventry Sports Centre:

• 1956 Against the backdrop of the radical rebuilding of Coventry, the plan for the Central Baths was first conceived and unveiled.
  
• 1962 Work started. It was hoped that smaller ‘satellite’ baths would be built later to ‘augment the central establishment and provide a balanced comprehensive service’.
  
• 1966 The completed Coventry Central Baths were officially opened on April 23 by the Lord Mayor, Alderman W. Parfitt.
  
• 1970 Main pool brought up to metric standards by reducing its length by 11.5inches to make it a 50-metre pool.
  
• 1972 Sauna suite added to part of (former) male changing rooms.
  
• 1977 Adjacent sports complex (elephant building) opens with link to the Baths.
  
• 1970s Public slipper baths close.
  
• 1987 Conversion of main pool changing areas to lockers from baskets. Floors replaced and former male changing rooms adapted to fitness use. Division of first floor female changing into male and female changing areas.
  
• 1994 New doors and canopy added to Fairfax Street entrance.
  
• 1994 Small pool modified to create ‘Splash’ pool with slide.
  
• 2000 Ceiling nets installed to stop debris from crumbling ceiling falling into the pool.
  
• 2002 Squash courts closed after flooding.
  
• 2010 Ceiling nets replaced.
  
• 2012 Diving boards closed and wrapped to stop tiles falling off.

Save Coventry 50m pool petition signed by 6,000 people



More than 6,000 people have signed a petition to save the only 50m swimming pool in the Midlands.

Campaigners have also organised a Save Our Swimming gala taking place later at the Fairfax Street sport centre - home to the Olympic-size pool.

Coventry City Council is proposing closing it and building a new leisure centre with a 25m pool and water park.

The authority said it was currently reviewing the responses from a public consultation into its plans.

Jo Deakin, from Coventry Swimming Club, said the gala was being staged to show the council the benefits of having a 50m pool in the city.

She said: "We are aware of the economics of the situation and that the centre can't go on as it currently is but we want to show this pool is needed not just for us as a club but for the whole city.

"We're not anti water park but we're saying to the council it shouldn't be instead of an Olympic-size pool, it should be there to compliment it."

A spokesman for the council said: "We are working through the responses to our consultation and carrying out feasibility studies on various options.

"One of those studies is whether it is possible to have a 50m pool at the new proposed site."

Protesters brand council consultation a 'sham' after Coventry's 50m swimming pool is scrapped



Swimming campaigners have hit out at council officers over a decision to scrap a 50-metre pool in the city - branding the consultation process a “sham”.

Coventry City Council is set to demolish the existing Olympic-sized pool in the city, and replace it with a 25-metre pool at a new £36million sports centre in New Union Street, after a report from officers said 50-metre pools could not be financially sustainable.

But campaigners say they doubt officers’ calculations, insisting 50-metre pools can be, and are, profitable in other areas of the country.

They also accused the council of going through the motions rather than giving serious consideration to their concerns.

Frank Stoney, chairman of the City of Coventry Swimming Club, said: “Who really makes the decisions on Coventry’s sporting future after ‘Consultation Sham’?

“Is it the citizens, their councillors, sports development officers or accountants told to make a profit?

"It has become clear that the first decision was made in 2013 on what to do with an available site for development, not necessarily what the people of Coventry wanted.

“The sporting potential of the people of Coventry can never be achieved without top quality facilities. Long-term athlete development requires years of training in suitable facilities.

“A decision not to replace the 50-metre pool will ensure City of Coventry Swimming Club’s relegation to a back water also ran instead of one of the top clubs in the country as they are now.”

Members of the Save our Swimming Campaign led calls to retain a 50-metre pool and secured a record 11,000 signatures in support of their aim.

Andy Fodor, chairman of the campaign’s focus group, said: “The whole process feels like a stitch up.

“A meeting on June 30 was set up after repeated calls from the focus group to meet with the council to discuss substantial research work we had undertaken which proved via several actual case studies that modern flexible 50-metre pools can and do make money.

“We offered to take the council to visit some of these fantastic pools so they could see for themselves how the community could benefit. But alas it seems they were just paying us lip service.”

A final decision on the pool is set to be rubber stamped on August 5 and then sent to full council for sign off but campaigners say they plan to keep up pressure in the meantime.

Deal clears way for new £14m Olympic swimming pool in Coventry

A deal has been agreed which will clear the way for a new Olympic-sized swimming pool to be built in the city, the Telegraph can exclusively reveal.

Ownership of the Alan Higgs Centre has been transferred from the Alan Higgs Centre Trust to the Coventry and Warwickshire Award Trust - which also owns Centre AT7, in Bell Green.

Secret talks over a 50-metre pool at the Allard Way site have been going on for months led by Coventry council leader Ann Lucas and were first revealed by the Telegraph in November.

Now, council officials have officially confirmed the Alan Higgs Centre deal will allow them to progress plans for an eight-lane competition pool with 500 spectator seats.

The news will come as a relief to the 11,000 people who signed a petition opposing the closure of the existing 50m pool at Fairfax Street. In 2014, councillors voted unanimously to close that site down citing running costs of £2,000 a day.

It is hoped the new pool will be completed at about the same time as a new £36m water park which is due to be built at New Union Street by 2019. The plan is that the profits from the water park will pay for the running costs of the new pool at the Alan Higgs Centre.

Responding to questions from the Telegraph, council planning supremo Martin Yardley said the council would be speaking to the Amateur Swimming Association and other potential financial backers to raise the £6m needed to deliver the £14m-plus project.

The project could have implications for Coventry City FC as the initial suggestion was that the new pool could sit on the site of the centre’s indoor football pitch which is used by the CCFC Academy.

That would put its category two academy status at risk as the academy relies on the indoor facilities to train all year round – a factor in getting prized category two status and almost £500,000 in grant funding from the Premier League. But the details of the pool plans are still being worked out and that no final decision about location has been made.

First images of amazing £36.7m water park planned for city centre



The first images of Coventry’s planned £36.7million water park and leisure centre have been revealed.

Artists impressions show the new building has been designed to reflect the city’s weaving past – with the outside appearing to be wrapped by a swirling ribbon.

The outside will be lit up at night and inside there will be a water park with slides, a 25-metre swimming pool, gym, climbing wall, squash courts, dance studio and day spa.

The building, which will sit on the site of Spire and Christchurch House next to Christchurch spire, is being designed by architects FaulknerBrowns.

It is hoped the site will be opened by late 2018 with construction work is set to start on site next spring. Council and NHS staff will be moving out of Christchurch House and Spire House this year and a planning application will be submitted in May.

The Telegraph first revealed plans for the water park, which will replace the loss-making Fairfax Street sports centre, in February 2014.

Councillors voted to close the Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre site in September 2014 after a report said it loses £2,000 a day.

That was despite heavy opposition to losing the Olympic pool and a record 11,000 people signed a petition calling for the city to retain the facility.

The report also estimated annual visitor numbers at the new leisure centre will reach 1.3 million a year from around 800,000 at Fairfax Street. But Coventry Swimming Club has publicly questioned those numbers in the past.

A planning application for the £36million facility has just been submitted



New artist’s impressions of the hotly anticipated facility - which is expected to open in 2018 - were released this morning.

They come as FaulknerBrowns Architects submit a planning application to Coventry City Council

The new water park - to be built in New Union Street, in the city centre - will include a wave pool, six flume rides, a lazy river, toddlers’ splash area, a 25m pool, spa and sauna.

Deputy council leader Abdul Khan said, “The new images of the waterpark look fantastic and it’s clear that it will be a great addition to our city’s changing skyline.

“I’m sure local people and visitors will enjoy the excitement that our new water park will offer.

“The submission of planning permission is the next step and I look forward to watching the development as it progresses.”

The council say building work will start later this year.

Plans for £36.7million Coventry water park given go-ahead



Plans for a £36.7million water park and leisure centre to replace Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre have been given the go-ahead.

The facility, which will sit on the site of Spire House and Christchurch House next to Christchurch spire, was approved by Coventry City Council under delegated orders - meaning it did not have to get planning committee approval.

It is hoped the council-owned facility will be opened by late 2018 with construction work set to start in spring next year.

Council and NHS staff will be moving out of Christchurch House and Spire House this year.

It is being designed by architects FaulknerBrowns, who have an extensive track record in designing some of the world’s top sports and leisure facilities.

The firm said it was “delighted” planning approval had been granted and that the scheme offered “significant regeneration benefits in terms of access, footfall and synergies with the mixed-use economy of Coventry city centre”.

It said the city centre location, and subsequent high land values, meant a ground-breaking design that stacks facilities vertically rather than horizontally had been adopted.

This will see most of the water features and the “high octane” rides at the upper level of the building.

Opposition to the water park scheme has been minimal, though some neighbours did make representations.

Planning documents detail concerns from Trustees of Ford’s Hospital Almshouse, Greyfriars Lane, which was founded in 1509 as sheltered accommodation for elderly citizens of Coventry.

They expressed concerns over increased traffic, and consequent pollution in the area, asking the council how it would be addressed.

One member of the public praised the development for its disabled access, though some concerns were expressed by the Methodist Church of Coventry Central Hall.

The church said it was not opposed to the scheme but did have some concerns about how the construction process might impinge on it and how when open the water park might affect its operations and the comings and goings of church-goers.

Council votes to pour £10.5m into Olympic swimming pool plan for Coventry City Academy base



Plans for an Olympic-length swimming pool at the home of Coventry City’s Academy have moved a step closer after Coventry Council agreed to plough £10.5million into the project.

Councillors voted unanimously to approve the funding during a full council meeting on Tuesday. The project aims to see a pool constructed at the Alan Higgs Centre, in Allard Way, by early 2019.

But there is still the need to raise an additional £6.4m from external funders before the project can be delivered. The identity of the potential investors is being kept under wraps at the moment, but the council insists that rugby club Wasps will not be contributing despite their plans to develop another area of the site.

The new pool would be built on land currently occupied by an indoor football pitch used by CCFC’s Academy and others. The football club says the swimming pool project, combined with Wasps’ plans for a £7m training centre at the site, could threaten the Academy’s future. But talks designed to identify any possible solutions at the Higgs Centre are due to take place.

The swimming pool project, which the Telegraph first revealed in November 2015, includes developing a new eight-lane pool with spectator seating for 500 people.

Council officers believes it can recoup the £10.5 taxpayer investment in the long term through the profits predicted to be generated from a planned £36m water park in the city centre due to be completed in 2019.

The council’s planned timeline should mean the existing 50-metre pool on Fairfax Street, which is due to be shut down, stays open until the two new facilities are ready for use.

Councillors voted to replace the Fairfax Street pool with a water park in 2014 after it was predicted that the park would pay for itself and generate a profit of £13.3million for taxpayers over 45 years.

But the decision prompted the biggest petition in the history of Coventry City Council as more than 11,000 people called for a 50-metre pool to be retained in the city.

Speaking as the decision to build the new Olympic length pool was made, Labour Coun Kamran Caan, cabinet member for sport, said: “The site is identified as a good location, addressing an un-met demand for facilities in the East and South East of Coventry.

“It will support community swimming, but it will cater for athletes who take part in other sports as well.

“This is clearly a momentous moment for the city of Coventry.”

He added that the council is working with Sport England and the Amateur Swimming Association on the plans for this and the planned city centre water park.

The plans also received cross-party support from the opposition Conservatives and Coun Ken Taylor even went as far as congratulating the ruling Labour group on the proposals.

He said: “Thank you to Labour for their endeavours and listening to what the residents of Coventry have had to say.”