The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
End is finally near for old leisure centre
The clock is ticking to bring an end to Forfar’s Lochside Leisure Centre saga. And we can reveal the demolition job will begin within months.
It has emerged Angus Council has cleared its final legal hurdle before knocking down the 47-yearold centre at Forfar Loch Country Park.
The Court of Session has granted a petition lodged by the authority seeking permission to bulldoze the building. The council had to go back to the court after suffering defeat in a landmark legal case brought by two town businessmen.
Mark Guild and Donald Stewart said they wanted to see the centre saved.
They argued the centre has decades of life left in it and said the authority had not properly consulted on Lochside’s future. And the nation’s highest civil court ruled in their favour.
Angus Council backed down from appealing the outcome in the Supreme
Court, councillors deciding it was not worth the financial risk.
The Court of Session ruling led to a formal consultation.
But late last year, councillors finally voted for demolition after no one came forward with a plan to lease Lochside.
There was a glimmer of hope a town sports trust would take over the centre, but it backed down at the 11th hour.
It signalled the end of the road for the centre and the
generations of sports fans who used it. The bulldozers are due to move in at the end of the summer.
The council said: “Following the Court of Session granting authority to demolish the Lochside Leisure Centre on April 13, tenders are now being prepared to demolish the centre as per the council decision of December 2021.
“It is anticipated that the works will commence in September 2022.”
There is £423,500 set aside in the council’s capital plan for the demolition. But from this week, there has been a significant change in the financial ramifications of the five-year saga.
Because of the court decision, ongoing outlays
will be paid from the Forfar common good fund.
Those include nondomestic rates and any urgent works that might be needed to keep it secure.
Since its closure in 2017 when the centre was replaced by new facilities at Forfar community campus, Lochside has cost the council around £1,000 a week.