Purchase plan revealed for Tiddenfoot Leisure Centre site as closure date looms
Acquiring Tiddenfoot Leisure Centre for community use “is on Leighton-Linslade Town Council’s radar”, a meeting heard.
As an asset of community value, it could be considered for use by a local organisation or group if no other interested party to buy or lease the premises was found by Central Bedfordshire Council’s assets team.
When the £33.9m Leighton Leisure and Community Centre opens at Clipstone Park in June, Tiddenfoot will become an empty shell, a meeting of CBC’s Leighton-Linslade partnership committee was told.
“CBC assets will determine what happens next with the empty Tiddenfoot premises, except for the sports hall and squash courts which remain part of Cedars Upper School, according to CBC’s projects and fundraising manager (leisure) Kim Owens.
Independent Leighton Linslade West councillor Victoria Harvey said: “The policy of assets will be to look for a commercial tenant.
“But if not, they’re also working hard on ‘meanwhile’ strategy to see whether there can be community use. I understand the other option at Tiddenfoot, as it’s a community asset, Leighton-Linslade Town Council would have first refusal to buy it.”
CBC’s community engagement manager Sarah Hughes confirmed: “As it’s listed as an asset of community value, should any part come up for disposal then there’s a process where the nominating group or the wider community can bid to purchase that asset.
“The group would have to express an interest with CBC. There’s a six-month moratorium placed on the sale of that asset, so an organisation or community group has extra time to raise funds.”
Town clerk Mark Saccoccio suggested: “The devil is in the detail here. The town council is in principle in support of an asset, but there’s much homework to be done.
“Ultimately that decision will rest with full council and whether it wished to progress that, although it’s certainly on our radar let’s say.”
Liberal Democrat Leighton Linslade South councillor Shaun Roberts said: “Potentially there can be a discussion about ‘is there a community use we can go for?’ and it’s important we get that.
“One thing that’s certain is nothing will happen quickly on that site. It’s a prime ‘meanwhile’ space of considerable size. Rather than having fences around it and worrying about people breaking in, it would be good to have continued use of that building.”
Liberal Democrat Leighton Linslade North councillor Kevin Pughe asked: “Is there a contract that ensures the school can’t make any changes unilaterally without the agreement of CBC?
” I know CBC works in silos, but I was really hoping for a whole view about what would happen in the future.”
Ms Owens explained: “The school is committed to providing the same services and availability.
“It’s not going to offer anything different. There was discussion about adult social care going into the new building. As that didn’t happen, we did some re-engineering of the space to get best use.
“There are three small treatment rooms and we’re seeking interest for anyone wanting to hire those rooms, such as a physiotherapist or local health clinics.”