Agenda item

The Leader presented the report to seek approval to consult on plans for a new leisure and wellbeing facility in the city centre,  The Leader was excited to present this report on the next stage of the Council’s ambitious plans for the City Centre, which focused on Leisure and Learning right in the heart of the City.

The city centre Masterplan adopted in January 2019 identified key areas of the city as priority locations for regeneration, linked by commonalities of use and economic drivers. The ongoing regeneration of Usk Way is critical to the City Core.

At the heart of the regeneration proposals was the development of the Newport Knowledge Quarter, which would re-locate the provision of further education into the city centre, close to the city’s existing higher education provision.  Early development work was on-going with Coleg Gwent to relocate their campus from Nash Road to the city centre, creating an enhanced learning offer as well as bringing footfall into the city centre.

The existing Newport Centre building, constructed over 35 years ago, was suffering from a range of structural issues and required significant investment to bring it up to modern day standards. Following closure of the centre as a result of the Covid lockdown, inspections of the pool had found it required investment up to £2.5 Million to enable the pool area to be re-opened to the public.  Following wider survey work, it was estimated that an additional investment of approximately £9.1Million would be needed in the medium term to maintain the site within operational standards. The existing Newport Centre building configuration was neither efficient nor sustainable and changes in demand over the decades meant that it was no longer able to compete with modern facilities.

It was therefore proposed to build a new environmentally sustainable and energy efficient leisure and wellbeing facility on a brownfield site overlooking the River Usk, near the existing centre. The land on which Newport Centre was currently located would be released to facilitate the relocation of Coleg Gwent’s further education campus into the city centre. As part of the proposals for a new leisure and wellbeing facility, the opinions of residents and stakeholders were welcomed in order to ensure that the development delivered a scheme which was ambitious, fit for purpose and reflective of the needs of our residents.

Costs to improve Newport Centre was £2.5M for swimming pool roof, with £9.1M wider maintenance needed over the medium term.  There were two options to be considered:

·         Option 1 –  Larger pool, but smaller sports facilities

·         Option 2 – Smaller pool, but multi-functional hall

Both options offered a modern swimming pool, fitness suites, family friendly changing, roof garden and café and the proposed development would also provide:

·         BREAM excellent with active travel connections

·         Coleg Gwent to close Nash and release for housing. No disruption to learning.

·         2,000 students at new site

·         Cost £19.7M

·         Funded by £8.2M Operational saving, £7M TRI, £4.5M NCC capital borrowing

The proposals will bring increased footfall into our City Centre and help support retail and hospitality business as it sought to recover from the impact of Covid.

Whilst the project would cost £20M, a large part of this would be financed from efficiency savings as a result of operating from a modern facility which would attract greater patronage. The council was also seeking capital investment from Welsh Government through its Targeted Regeneration and Investment Fund.

The last 9 months have been extremely challenging, but throughout the pandemic, we have not stopped working on plans to improve the City and the lives of our residents and in particularly supporting our City Centre to return stronger.

Two broad options had been developed, but the council wanted to hear the views of the Newport residents to understand what they wanted in their new facility.  The Leader therefor sought approval from cabinet to consult on these plans.

The Leader invited the Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture to speak.

The Cabinet Member was excited about the proposals set out in the report, which was long overdue.  The new centre was future proof and would provide excellent modern facilities for students and families alike.  The Cabinet Member urged residents to go online and provide their feedback on the consultation.

The Leader invited Cabinet Members to give their comments.

·         The Cabinet was unanimous in their support for the public consultation to commence on the development of a new leisure facility within the city centre.

·         The Cabinet were looking forward to hearing from residents of Newport on the new development which would be a huge benefit for families and students.

·         The proposal would increase footfall and businesses and links to Coleg Gwent within Newport as well as providing a wellbeing facility.

·         Colleagues reflected on the use of the Newport Centre over the past 35 years and felt that this would be an ideal opportunity to sustain a positive use of facilities in a newer build.

·         With the increase of population and household, the proposed development was welcome.

·         The building was delivering on a new accessible building that would deliver on the wellbeing and the equality of residents as well as being a green and sustainable build.

·         The development was welcome for Newport and was brilliant news under the circumstances.

·         The modernisation of the city centre and the facilities for student was excellent and the university intake figures had improved which was also another positive reason for the build to take place.

The Leader invited the Chief Executive to speak.

The Chief Executive echoed the comments in particular those regarding education and Coleg Gwent being a key partner.  Dialogue was ongoing with Coleg Gwent and University of South Wales to have two facilities co-located within the city centre.  It had been a difficult year and we were working with Friars Walk and the Business Improvement District on how to improve the city centre during these challenging times.  This was public sector led investment fit for the future and more particularly fit for Newport. The investment would inspire residents for Newport and be attractive to businesses and the Chief Executive welcomed the views and outcome of the public consultation and would listen to and incorporate these views.

The Leader picked up on a few points made by Cabinet from a personal perspective with positive memories of using the Newport Centre.  It also met the policy aspirations of the Welsh Government.    This was also about sustainable development and the impact on wellbeing and the inclusive nature of the proposed scheme.  The Leader asked the citizens of Newport to consider the potential of the development, that Newport was a listening council and that she was personally looking forward to feedback from residents.

Decision:

Cabinet agreed to commence with a public consultation for plans to build a new leisure and wellbeing facility in the city centre, enabling the release of land to Coleg Gwent to support the creation of the Newport Knowledge Quarter.