South Leighton is to finally get the purpose-built community centre its residents demanded after a last minute change of plan by Leighton-Linslade Town Council.
With just a few weeks to go before building starts at Astral Park the council has decided to up the ante and plough £1.5m into a major, much needed facility that will provide the town with a large public meeting room that can be sub-divided into three, four changing rooms for sports, office accommodation, kitchen and stores.
The new scheme is three times the size of the original concept which had been kept deliberately small because of financial constraints.
But prudent tendering and a cross-party decision by town councillors to dip into council reserves, has resulted in a radical re-think. The knock-on effect will be that there will be at least £80,000 in savings that can be ploughed into improving or possibly re-building Mentmore Road pavilion, Linslade.
The improved plan for the Sandhills/Billington Park area has the backing, and been welcomed by, the ward councillors, mayor Amanda Dodwell, David Bowater and Ray Berry.
This week Mrs Dodwell set out to assure residents that the scheme, which will provide more than double the existing floorspace of the current, temporary, community house, in Plover Road, will come with increase car parking provision.
“The last thing we want is for there to be a problem for residents living near Astral Park,” she said.
Historically the town was promised a community centre at Astral Park more than a decade ago but the scheme fell through after investors failed to secure funding.
The new idea always included the potential to expand the building in the future but the council discovered major savings could be made by building large from the offset.
Town clerk, Mark Saccoccio, said: “It’s always been the aim of the town council to maximise the use of the building for the good of the whole town and it would have been foolhardy not to explore the opportunity to develop a larger facility.”
Mrs Dodwell said: “there’s a real shortfall of facilities in Leighton-Linslade. Since we lost the Bossard Hall there’s nowhere to hold public meetings or to rent for birthday parties. This will give us much more flexibility. We can also look at helping a number of projects across the town, including Mentmore Road, the cemetery and the market.
“This will be a community facility and we want the community involved in helping run it.”
Building work is due to start in June and be finished by this autumn. Fresh planning approval has been submitted for the enlarged scheme.