Brent Council consult on closure of Bridge Park Leisure Centre in July ahead of redevelopment

 Brent Council have launched a consultation on the closing of Bridge Park Leisure Centre in Stonebridge aheard of redevelopment.

This is the statement on their website:

 Residents are being asked for their views on the future of Bridge Park Community Leisure including options for leisure and community facilities, as part of a wider redevelopment to provide new homes and green spaces along the Hillside Regeneration Corridor. This consultation will help shape the future of the site and ensure that local needs are met.

At the end of 2024, local people described what they would like to see in a new leisure centre which would include a new swimming pool, new sports hall, larger gym, a function hall, meeting rooms and café.

In the first phase of consultation, residents highlighted the need for improvements to local leisure and community spaces. Respondents shared their views on potential new facilities, including swimming pools, sports halls, gyms, and community areas. We are now seeking further feedback to refine these proposals and ensure they align with community needs.

The deteriorating condition of the existing leisure centre means that it would require very substantial capital investment to keep the site open and safe on a sustainable basis, including major and expensive works to the lifts and other key parts of the building fabric. We do not believe this expenditure is a sensible use of limited council funding when there are proposals to build a new, state-of-the-art centre for the community to use for years to come.

Brent Council is asking local people for their views about closing the existing leisure centre in July 2025, to enable a planned closure to take place in a managed way.

Councillor Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council, said: 

Bridge Park Leisure Centre is so much more than a building and we want to honour its history and build on its legacy for the next generation of residents. I want to thank residents who told us what they would like to see in a new and improved leisure centre at Bridge Park, including brand new leisure facilities, much needed new homes, a new jobs and skills hub and community and green spaces. Now that we have a clearer vision of the future, we want to work closely with the community to shape the future of leisure and community facilities at Bridge Park. This next phase of consultation is about gathering feedback on the proposed closure, and transition arrangements for residents.

With other leisure facilities available at Vale Farm Sports Centre and Willesden Sports Centre, which are both within three miles of Bridge Park, the consultation is an opportunity for residents to feedback how well these facilities could support transition arrangements.

The redevelopment of Bridge Park is part of a wider plan to transform the local area, which could see £600million invested along the Hillside corridor in Stonebridge over the coming years.

The Unisys buildings, which stand empty over the North Circular, have been derelict for more than 20 years. Brent Council is working with the owners of the Unisys buildings, Stonebridge Real Estate Development Limited (SRED), to redevelop Bridge Park and the neighbouring land.

Your views are vital, so have your say by 11 May 2025.

The statement makes no direct mention of efforts by the community to have the current building listed as a Black History  heritage site  LINK but the Equality Assessment notes the impact on the BAME community:

The closure of a leisure and function facility is relevant to the Council’s Public Sector Equality Duty as it will affect residents that currently use the facility and those who might have used it in future and could particularly impact individuals from protected groups such as older residents, young people, disabled people, BAME individuals, those from certain religions/beliefs  pregnant and maternal residents and those from lower-income households.

 

The users of BPCLC are predominantly from the local area and closing the facility before a new facility is opened will result in users having to travel to another facility and potentially incur greater costs. Although alternative provision is available in the local area, and we would take steps to mitigate impacts, the closure may also have an impact on overall participation and activity levels. Some individuals may not choose to travel further or pay more for alternative provision.

 

As a result there may be an impact on the need to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a protected characteristic and those who do not, which is one of the three equality needs set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. However, as explained below, the Council considers that the proposals would be objectively justified, so as not to give rise to discrimination.

 

The Council also acknowledges that Bridge Park has played an important role in the Stonebridge community for many years. Bridge Park is an important chapter in Black British history and the community’s achievements in creating this space in the 1980’s to empower local black residents. It is important to work with the community to ensure this history is commemorated within the new facilities.

 

There may therefore be an impact on the need to foster good relations between persons who share a protected characteristic and persons who do not share it, one of the other relevant equality needs. The Council is seeking to mitigate this as much as possible including through public consultation both on the proposed closure and our plans for the new leisure centre and wider redevelopment.