State of the Art Facility to Replace Brentford Fountain Leisure Centre

Council plans to have new facility built on adjacent site paid for by flats

Plans are being drawn up to demolish The Brentford Fountain Leisure Centre on Chiswick High Road and replace it with a £68million state of the art centre and residential housing on an adjacent site.

A Hounslow Council cabinet meeting last year considered the options available when it heard that the current centre, which is nearly thirty years old, would not be fit for purpose in another few years. They have now approved a proposal for a new leisure centre to be built on a nearby site and the current centre will be demolished when it is completed.

Technical due diligence and site investigation surveys are starting this month and a sum of £150,000 was reserved to start the process off. It is expected that a planning submission could be submitted by December 2017 with building starting the following December.

If all goes to plan, a new centre could be completed by March 2021 and the process of selling the associated private residential units could start in March 2020.

The cabinet agreed that the site should be taken forward as a New Build Project in conjunction with London & Quadrant, (owners of the adjacent land) as part of a wider master planning process, to deliver a like for like leisure facility.

The 2.2 acre site where the current centre is situated, which also includes a car park, would be of considerable value if released for residential use, use way above its last valuation of £3.85million in 2009.

However, if the existing facility were to be demolished and rebuilt, it would leave the public without a leisure centre for a number of years, which was deemed undesirable and would also lead to loss of income. It was decided that a new centre would be better than an expensive refurbishment and that a brand new facility would be more in keeping with modern trends in sports and leisure.

Existing leisure centre can be identified as site 9. Sites 1, 3, and 8 are owned by London & Quadrant. Image LBH

Brentford councillor Guy Lambert has said that the new centre is expected to be built on the adjacent Citroen site as the company is moving.

"The intention is to develop a new leisure centre, probably on the site currently occupied by Citroen, who are moving and close the Fountains when the new one is ready. Of course, leisure centres are expensive, so there's a way to go as yet."

According to a report considered by the cabinet meeting, a scheme which included 168 private apartments above a new leisure facility, along with 100 car park spaces, was suggested.

It would not be possible to have affordable housing to generate value for a new leisure centre and therefore the apartments would have to be sold privately to provide the leisure centre at no cost to the Council.

The cabinet meeting last October said it recognised the need to provide a new leisure facility at the cost of nil affordable housing provision on the leisure site. They also agreed that the risk of build costs inflation, planning and sales risk sits with London & Quadrant, as adjoining land owner and special purchaser.

Delegated authority has been given to the Executive Director of Regeneration, Economic
Development & Environment, Brendon Walsh, to execute contractual agreements with London & Quadrant for the provision of a new leisure centre.

We have asked Hounslow Council for more details.

March 14, 2017