New £15m leisure centre plan for Leyland

It follows a review of leisure facilities in South Ribble.

A year ago, it was feared leisure centres in South Ribble could be closed down and replaced by a new multi-million pound facility in a major shake-up of services.

Three options involved closing Leyland Leisure Centre and building a new £14.5m facility at Farington Moss.

Now a new facility has been proposed as part of a ‘campus concept’ report outlining how leisure, health and wellbeing could be delivered.

An update is due to go before South Ribble Council’s cabinet on Wednesday.

A proposal to build a new facility on West Paddock with an eight lane, 25m pool, fitness centre and 6 court sports hall has been developed. It would include dance studios, potential library relocation and therapy rooms.

Cabinet will be told it would cost £15m and take nearly three years to build and on completion the existing site would be freed for new housing.

Leyland councillor Claire Hamilton said: “I’m absolutely delighted we’ll be keeping everything in town.

“We’ve had 1,900 signatures to keep a leisure centre in Leyland. My view has always been that I don’t care if they refurbished the existing one or build a new one but it has to be in Leyland. It should be in the heart of Leyland otherwise people who have transport issues will not be bale to use it.”