Drilling down on leisure hub delay
Question of‘political choice’raised by SNP leader
Questions have been asked over delays in building Blairgowrie Recreation Centre.
At a Perth and Kinross Council committee meeting the SNP group’s leader asked if delays were political.
PKC’s head of business and resources confirmed the centre is on track to open in November 2023 - the revised date announced earlier this year.
Back in 2016 an SNP council administration budgeted for a state-of-the-art recreation centre in Blairgowrie scheduled for completion in 2020.
At a meeting of PKC’s strategic policy and resources committee on September 1, SNP Strathtay councillor Grant Laing questioned if delays were not just down to COVID but “partly due to political choice and direction”.
PKC’s head of business and resources Greg Boland said the most recent delay - communicated to PKC’s property sub-committee in April 2021 - was for the operational date of March 2023 to be moved to November 2023 because of COVID.
He said he had met with the project team within the past week and confirmed the date continued to be November 2023.
Mr Boland said previous delays followed several meetings with users and the addition of a sixth lane to the pool’s design and increasing the size of the sports hall.
He told Cllr Laing: “I appreciate the project has been on the radar for a period of time but the only formal completion date of March 2023 has now moved to November 2023 that’s specifically COVID.
“Historically it was to do with feedback from the user reference group and expanding the scope of the project which you could say caused delays from when the funding was first announced.”
The building is now being built to Passivhaus standards.
Strathmore Conservative councillor Colin Stewart asked if officers were visiting other sites and learning from other councils about Passivhaus.
Property services manager Scott Nicoll said: “There are not many examples of Passivhaus swimming pools in the UK,
Seymour (left) with Murdo Fraser MSP
Europe or for that matter the world.
“It is something quite new. “We are drawing on the best experience we have.
“We have a Passivhaus ambassador group set up within the council. We’re reaching out to people who know about Passivhaus designs and doing everything we can to evangelise Passivhaus design and take in whatever body of knowledge is out there.”
He said there had been a visit to Exeter to visit the UK’s first Passivhaus standard ultra-low carbon leisure centre.
Mr Nicoll said PKC was at the “leading edge” in terms of building a leisure centre to a Passivhaus standard.
Blairgowrie and Glens Conservative councillor Bob Brawn said: “There have been delays on this project there is no doubt about it.
“But this project is now moving forward - we’ve agreed the project.
“We’re going to be building a recreation centre that will be far better than any one that would have been built had we started in 2017.
“We can keep looking back - if we wish - but I would ask colleagues to start supporting this project rather than keep harping back to the past and why it’s been delayed.”
Cllr Stewart echoed Cllr Brawn’s remarks and said: “What we are doing is trying to future-proof the council estate to make it sustainable and environmentally friendly and I think that should be welcomed by all of us.”
Blairgowrie and Glens SNP councillor Tom McEwan said: “Blairgowrie Recreation Centre should have been finished by now.”
He expressed concern construction costs would “increase even further”.