Plans to rebuild two Sheffield leisure centres move forward - with work to start in autumn
Springs Leisure Centre in Arbourthorne and Concord Leisure Centre in Shiregreen will be completely rebuilt
Plans to rebuild two Sheffield leisure centres have moved forward and work on the first will begin this autumn.
Sheffield City Council has already decided to rebuild Springs Leisure Centre in East Bank Road, Arbourthorne and Concord Leisure Centre in Shiregreen Lane, Shiregreen.
Springs will be renamed in honour of pioneering black Premier League football referee Uriah Rennie. Work starts on rebuilding the centre on an unused sports pitch this October.
Construction at Concord is expected to follow in summer 2027.
Both centres will remain open while building work takes place. Work is expected to take two years to complete in each case.
The city council’s finance and performance policy committee agreed on Monday, July 20 to sign off on new lease arrangements at Springs.
This is because the boundary with Springs Academy next door is changing to accommodate the new building. A deal has been agreed with United Learning academy trust.
Committee chair Councillor Elle Dodd said: “Sheffield is a city of sport and home of the world’s oldest football club with Olympic standard facilities and hundreds of young inspiring aspiring athletes.
“Sport and leisure bring people together and help them stay healthy in body and mind. We’re investing in our community facilities to ensure people have access to state-of-the-art, affordable sport and leisure facilities near where they live and open to everyone.”
Kate Clark, service manager for physical activity, sport and health, spoke about the Concord centre. Councillors agreed to release £67,000 of the budget for initial work to progress.
She said: “The rebuild of the centre on adjacent land will allow us to obviously keep our facilities open in an area of health inequalities, which is really important um for continuity of service.
“It will also allow us to integrate Concord Sports Centre much better into its surroundings. It sits in Concord Park.
“We’ve got a lot of informal outdoor sports provision and then we’ll also have the the more formal sports provision at Concord Sports Centre.
“That will give us a real opportunity to create integrated indoor and outdoor facilities hub for the city, which would be really fantastic for that local area.”