Suffolk Coastal currently have a budget of around 20 million pounds dedicated to the replacement and refurbishment of "built" leisure and sports facilities in Felixstowe. This is actually independent of the new Local Plan, but it is included in the plan for completeness. This could be great news for Felixstowe.

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The current Leisure Centre (by the pier) opened in 1985 and cost £4.3 million. It is now 33 years old. In addition, we also have the Brackenbury sports centre, built in 1998 and so is just 20 years old. Both of these facilities have recently benefited from minor refurbishment projects. 

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The new Local Plan proposes to close and demolish both of these facilities and replace them with a new out-of-town leisure centre that will be part of (or adjacent to) the new Garden Neighbourhood on land that is owned by Trinity College. The plan claims that the existing facilities are "nearing the end of their useful life". Is this true? - They are not very old.

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The Plan also claims that provision of the new facilities is dependent upon the building of the Garden Neighbourhood (see above). This is untrue, there is an existing, separate, budget for this.

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In fact the existing facilities are relatively modern, well situated, and could be fully modernised for a fraction of the cost (around £8million). 

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The range of facilities offered by the new facility will be slightly less than the current facilities - e.g. there is currently no plan to include an indoor bowls court.

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Note the image shown here is taken from the council's "Leisure Vision" document.

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