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Kentish Town Baths - over budget even before final designs have been approved |
Revamp of baths to cost extra £2.5m
Fitness facilities send bill soaring
FLAGSHIP plans to revamp Kentish Town Baths have run over budget by £2.5million before final designs have even been agreed.
Liberal Democrat leisure chief Councillor Flick Rea said the extra money would be used to improve fitness facilities at the Prince of Wales Road building.
She said a survey of regulars at the baths had shown the demand for the extra services.
The council had initially agreed to spend £22.7 million, but Cllr Rea now says the project won’t come cheaper than £25.2 million.
And she said on Tuesday that there were no guarantees that the price would not rise again.
“The cost won’t go galloping up and there is money set aside for contingencies, things that might go wrong, but with a building like this you never know what you might find,” said Cllr Rea.
The latest blueprint shows plans to keep the three pools and open two gyms and a fitness studio.
Cllr Rea added: “The place could be infested with dry rot for all we know. We are doing all we can to keep the cost down.”
Before their election defeat last May, Labour party members said the baths could be refurbished for a sum closer to £14 million, although their plans involved sacrificing the centre’s learner pool.
Deputy leader Councillor Theo Blackwell said: “We warned that the cost of this project could escalate. We would be worried that the council has been far too ambitious and could get out of control.”
But the decision now lies in the hands of the Lib Dem and Conservative coalition running the Town Hall, which is bound by election promises to refurbish the baths. In fact, the issue is so sensitive that some Labour members feel they lost crucial ground to the Lib Dems in Kentish Town and neighbouring Cantelowes ward during last year’s elections and it swung the overall result – making the refurbishment a pledge that cannot be withdrawn.
Cllr Rea said she was under no illusions that the project represented a risk but said the prospect of a top sports facility opening inside the old Victorian building – sometime in 2010 – was too good to ignore.
The final cost will be propped up by selling part of the land.
Cllr Rea said there was no official cap on spending but that her political colleagues would not accept wild price jumps.
Fiona Dean, assistant director of culture and leisure at the council, said: “This is always going to be a risky project, but because the pool has been closed we have been able to do extra tests.” |
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