A plan is being drawn up
An investigation into the incident by police was closed (Image: Sean Hansford / MEN)
Plans are being drawn up to rebuild a ‘vital’ leisure centre in Salford damaged in a fire last year.
The council said it is working with Alliance Leisure – a leisure developer – to draw up designs for a new facility to replace Clarendon Leisure Centre based off Liverpool Street next to Clarendon Park.
The new facility could be based on nearby Churchill Way, with talks being held about the project with Sport England.
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A plan to move forward to the design stage of the process was approved in August.
A Salford council spokesperson said: “This approval is to proceed to RIBA Stage 2, where Salford City Council will work with Alliance Leisure to commence work on developing the concept design, based on the Sport England “leisure local” principles.
“This will then inform a business plan and enable options to be presented regarding affordability of the scheme and identify, if appropriate, suppliers for the project.”
A timeline from getting the green light to begin work on the concept design to the handover of a new facility could take up to two years, according to a report.
Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey said the facility was a ‘vital’ part of the community (Image: Sean Hansford / MEN)
The cost of reaching the design stage is set to be nearly £300,000, at which point the council could choose to ‘withdraw or park the scheme’ if it wanted.
Emergency services were called out to a fire scene at Clarendon Leisure Centre in the early hours on Friday, May 10, 2024.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) launched an investigation after treating the incident as ‘suspicious’, but GMP told the Local Democracy Reporting Service in March that this was closed as no suspects were identified.
Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey said earlier this year that the need to rebuild the facility was ‘urgent’ in a community that was ‘already starved of facilities’.
She raised the issue in Parliament, asking for government support to “ensure that this vital facility is rebuilt as a matter of urgency.”
Alex Norris MP, minister for local growth and building safety, agreed at the time to meet Ms Long-Bailey and discuss the future of the site.