Plans for new £13m leisure centre for Bromsgrove set to be approved

Planner are set to give the green light to plans for a new £13 million leisure centre for Bromsgrove when they meet next week.Bromsgrove District Council’s planning committee have recommended the application to build a new leisure centre on the site of the former Blackmore House residential home in School Drive for approval when they meet on Monday (December 7).In July, the Advertiser reported the authority had snapped up the land near to the existing Dolphin Centre. The plan is to demolish existing buildings and clear this site, which is where the new £13 million leisure centre would be built. The plans include a main pool, a learner pool, fitness suite, group cycling studio, climbing wall and café.But the scheme has been met with opposition from some residents when it was revealed the new centre would have no sports hall.Campaigners, who use the hall at the Dolphin Centre for activities including badminton, basketball, junior football, martial arts and circuit training, are angry. At a district council meeting in November, Mr Ganner called the scheme a ‘downgrading of facilities’ pointing out that there were already 14 low cost gyms in the area, but that the only public badminton courts that made the required standard were in the Dolphin Centre.A council spokesman previously told the Advertiser that people valued having a leisure centre and it was providing a new one with the best facilities they could – but an on-site sports hall would make the whole scheme “unaffordable.”