New Creswell leisure centre ‘continuing as scheduled’ as Bolsover Council takes on project

Work on the new Creswell Heritage and Wellbeing Centre began earlier this year by contractor Woodhead Construction, six years after Creswell’s former leisure centre shut its doors.

However, the future of the centre, on Colliery Road, was thrown into doubt in September after Woodhead Construction, part of Woodhead Group, announced it was going into administration as a result of rising costs.

In a bid to ensure the promised site was delivered, Bolsover District Council decided to take charge of the project, alongside a number of building contracts worth £36million for hundreds of homes in the district.

Councillor Duncan McGregor (Lab) said: “We had made a commitment to our parishioners that they would get a new heritage and wellbeing centre and we are honouring that commitment. Stopping the building process and waiting for a new contractor to be found was not an option as it would have caused delays of months, even years.

“The decisive action we took only cost us a couple of weeks in the build process as we had to engage with the sub-contractors and reassure them that the project was still going ahead.

“I am delighted that work is now continuing as scheduled and it proves that your local Labour Party is working in the best interests of the local communities we represent.”

The new centre will provide a 27-station gym, a two-court badminton sports hall, a climbing wall and caving experience, a soft play area, an exercise studio, and a café. Building work on the new centre is due to be complete in early 2023.

Council leader Coun Steve Fritchley said: “Once we learned the contractor was to cease trading we took swift and decisive action to ensure our assets were protected and we could continue to deliver what we had set out to do.

“I am a big believer in the council being in control of its own destiny so we are putting into place plans to ensure we have more control of our future residential and commercial projects.”