Further investment in Doncaster Leisure facilities unveiled

The full proposals include significant refurbishments for Doncaster Dome and a brand-new leisure facility for Edlington (replacing the existing Edlington Leisure Centre), as well as further investment into Adwick and Dearne Valley Leisure Centres with support from funding from Sport England.

The works are part of the City of Doncaster Council’s ongoing capital investment across all leisure facilities which has seen over £35m invested over the past five years.

£1.9m of works to Doncaster Dome will be in addition to the existing £15m of work currently being undertaken to refurbish the lagoons and entrance to the Dome, while the new leisure facility in Edlington is set to cost £6.9m. Successful grant applications to Sport England has meant that further funding support has been offered for the works at Dearne Valley and Adwick, as per the capital strategy and capital budget which was approved in February.

Members of Cabinet will look to approve the following projects:

• Demolition of the existing Edlington Leisure Centre to facilitate the construction of a new building that includes a 25m swimming pool, changing facilities, wellbeing suite with Innerva equipment, pool viewing gallery and food and drink offering.
• Major refurbishments at Doncaster Dome including repairs to the main entrance and significant elements of the building fabric, heating infrastructure and the roof.
• Key refurbishments at Dearne Valley and Adwick Leisure Centres, which will include transforming the facilities into wellbeing-focused hubs, with new equipment, reception and meeting spaces.

Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones said: “These proposals are incredibly important for our communities, enabling our residents to live healthier lives through sport and leisure. This is a key priority for me, delivering further investment in our leisure facilities on top of the over £35million we have invested over the past five years when many councils are looking to close or reduce operational hours of some of their facilities.

“We have listened to residents throughout this process, which is why I am delighted to see that our new leisure facility for Edlington will include a 25m swimming pool. I know how important this was from the feedback we received, and it was essential that we went back, looked at this and made the relevant changes.

“We are also aware how important these facilities are to older residents, especially considering our aging population. Previous investment into Askern Leisure Centre’s wellbeing suite Innerva equipment has shown an uptake, with over 65 percent of the members using the wellbeing suite at Askern Leisure Centre being 60 or above. That is why we are working to make the new Edlington leisure facility as accessible and modern as possible, so that residents can access these vital facilities at the heart of their communities.

“I want to thank everybody involved who has helped us to get to this point and I look forward to discussing the proposals with cabinet next week.”

The proposals will go to cabinet for approval on Wednesday 5 November, with the papers going live on the afternoon of Tuesday 28 October.

(Please note - above design could change during planning process)