Costs for Portsmouth's new swimming pool rise by £700,000
The City Council's had to dip into its reserves
The cost of Portsmouth’s new swimming pool has jumped by almost £700,000, prompting the city council to cancel projects and dip into reserve funds.
Portsmouth City Council says it has now overcome the final major financial hurdle for the £23m Bransbury Park Swimming Pool and Leisure Centre.
The facility, under construction in Eastney, will include a 25-metre, four-lane swimming pool, a learner pool, a 65-station gym, a GP surgery and outdoor sports facilities.
The scheme, which was granted planning permission in December 2024, is being built by the council through its contractor, Willmott Dixon.
The project is now expected to cost an extra £696,000. Most of the increase is due to the much higher cost of removing waste soil from the site. The council also said it faced staffing costs and had to redesign the new play area because of ground conditions.
The council has already used the project’s remaining contingency fund and other savings but still faced a £362,000 shortfall.
To help cover the cost, it will cancel plans to conserve bronze statues, install Victory in Europe/Japan plaques, restore an Edwardian seafront shelter and replace fencing at Paulsgrove Football Club.
It will also use money set aside for two cancelled PlayZone projects after the Football Foundation decided not to go ahead with them.
A further £404,000 will come from the council’s leisure facilities maintenance reserve to replenish the project’s contingency fund.
Council papers say this “represents the resolution of the final major financial risk to the council from this project”.
Once construction reaches foundation level, the contract becomes fixed price, meaning any future cost increases will be met by contractor Willmott Dixon.
Councillor Steve Pitt, leader of the council, said the bronze statues project had been funded through another source, as had the Second World War plaques.
He said the Edwardian shelter scheme had been in the budget since 2017, before his administration, and related to a shelter in Eastney which had already been renewed as part of the sea defences project.
He also said Paulsgrove Football Club did not “follow up to request” the funding and that the club now plays a lot of its matches elsewhere.
“These were literally dead schemes, when we were doing Bransbury we knew the contingency was reasonable but that there could be pressure on it and therefore those schemes were ringfenced months ago”.
“Nothing has been scrapped, all of those things are either happening or no longer required.”
“The contract is fixed at the point at the point it comes out of the ground and all of the excavation work has been done.
“It costed more to dispose what we took out of the ground than we thought, that happens.”
The project has been controversial since it was first proposed, particularly among members of the Eastney Pool Redevelopment campaign group.
The group opposed the council’s decision to demolish the historic Eastney Swimming Pool, which was used to train the Cockleshell Heroes during the Second World War.
Campaigners argued the existing site could have been redeveloped instead of building a new facility at Bransbury Park.
Campaign leader Kevin Gardner said he thought it was “appalling” that the council was “diverting the almost £700,000 to the Bransbury Park project, to cover the cost increase”.