New Swadlincote council HQ and leisure centre could cost £59 million

Vacant grassland
-Credit:Derby Telegraph


A Derbyshire council’s plan to build a new headquarters and leisure centre on an out-of-town former mining site is set to cost £59 million. In January the Local Democracy Reporting Service exclusively revealed South Derbyshire District Council’s plan to demolish its own Swadlincote headquarters and leisure centre and rebuild on the former Cadley Hill Colliery.

Now the council has said that the cost of the new building, a mile away from its current site, would be an estimated £59.4 million, including allowances for inflation. This would be spread over three years with final approval of the project to be agreed in February 2027 and the council wanting to have the new facility open by Spring 2028.

Meanwhile, the council says the project to move out of its current Civic Way and Green Bank Leisure Centre facilities would save the authority £121.3 million over the next 50 years – £2.4 million per year – compared to the continued use of the current buildings. This would come through not having to make costly repairs to the existing building, reduced running costs due to energy efficiency improvements and forecast leisure centre income increases.

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The new combined building would be constructed opposite the access to Coronation Park, on scrubland south of the Swadlincote Family Golf Centre, alongside William Nadin Way. When the new building is complete, the current Civic Way facilities, including Green Bank, would be demolished and the town centre site would be repurposed, with plans for its redevelopment now in the works behind the scenes.

Dr Justin Ives, the council’s chief executive, is confident that the new facilities would still be required should the authority be scrapped in ongoing local government reform talks, if not for a base for the replacement unitary or unitaries then as prime office space to be sold to a private company. The authority was able to secure the Cadley Park site via a “land swap” with owners Harworth, trading council-owned grassland south of Fairfield Crescent and west of Oversetts Road in Newhall which has now formed part of an approved plan for 150 houses – agreed by councillors in January.

Vacant fields
The proposed site of the new leisure centre and South Derbyshire District Council HQ on the former Cadley Hill Colliery off William Nadin Way, Swadlincote -Credit:Derby Telegraph

Meanwhile, the land swap agreement is to be sealed over the coming weeks, by the end of the 2024 financial year in March, the council says. The authority said last month that it would take on a high street shop unit to act as a council customer hub, to assist people who find it more difficult to reach the out-of-town Cadley site.

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Meanwhile, it will work with Derbyshire County Council and bus providers to extend the existing bus routes up to the Cadley site, along with wider connectivity improvements in that area. Council officials said the new leisure centre would be “bigger and better”, including an eight-lane 25-metre swimming pool, with a floor which can be raised and lowered to accommodate people with disabilities, along with a family changing room.

It would include a cafe and separate suite of gym equipment catering for people with wider rehabilitation needs, along with coach parking. Officials said the site has extensive “destination potential”, similar to the Moorways site in Derby, and would include a climbing wall along with “significant” parking facilities.

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