Portsmouth City Council to spend an extra £5m on new Bransbury Park leisure centre

The funding is allocated in the council's draft budget for the coming year and is due to be confirmed by councillors later this month.

Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said the project was an important part of its plans for leisure services in the city and said the funding would ensure it is kept on track.

'We are putting forward proposals to make sure that our plans for a new leisure centre in Bransbury Park can become a reality,' he said. 'A new leisure centre will mean we avoid millions of pounds in maintenance costs at our older existing centres.'

The facility will include a gym, sports hall, two swimming pools and several meeting rooms. It will replace Eastney Swimming Pool and Wimbledon Park Sports Centre, which were facing repair bills of almost £1m.

The council said incorporating the existing Eastney Community Centre into the new building would provide a 'modern, flexible ecologically-sound community facility'.

Initial estimates of the cost of the project put the price at £12.5m but Cllr Vernon-Jackson said this had risen to more than £16m due to the cost of building supplies. He said a grant from Sport England was also smaller than forecast.

The council will be asked to approve the allocation, which forms part of the proposed £68m capital budget for the coming year, later this month.

A drop-in session will also be held at Eastney Community Centre on March 15 from 4.30-7.30pm to give the public an opportunity to find out more about the leisure centre plans.

A public consultation on the proposals was held in 2020, with 63 per cent of 1,800 respondents saying they wanted the new facility. Just over 20 per cent objected to the plans.