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.

 

Council sells off more land for Bridge Park development - but no new secondary school

Stonebridge bus garage before conversion

Bridge Park Leisure Centre with Unisys House in background

Indicative scheme for the site

Tomorrow's Executive is to consider another council land sale financed development along similar lines to that at Willesden Green Library which provoked so much controversy. DETAILS

The Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre would be rebuilt as part of the scheme with some of its council owned land sold to the developer. A compulsory Purchase Order would be served on the car breakers that occupy part of the site. Bridge Park includes a number of business units and the separate Technology House office block is used by a children's nursery and a church.

The Centre was built on the site of the old Stonebridge bus station (I seem to remember trolley buses) and was partially a response to fears of disorder on the Stonebridge Estate in the wake of the 1985 riots.

Before land sale and compulsory purchase order

After land sale and CPO

The Unisys site is owned by General Mediterranean Holdings and they plan to build 512 dwellings and a hotel on their part of the site. The proposal differs from that for Willesden Green in that this involves a direct land sale rather than an agreement with a third party. Brent Council would procure its own architects and builders to build the new sports centre rather than developer such as Galliford Try.

The report states:

The Sale Agreement passes the risk of residential and commercial sales to the developer. So for example the council considered GMH carrying out the whole development on behalf of the council including building the sports centre. While this would remove the sports centre build cost risk to the council it would raise other issues. If the council for example set out its requirements for the sports centre and imposed an obligation to deliver the new sports centre in accordance with that specification then it would have tocomply with the European OJEU procurement rules and undertake a fully compliant and separate procurement process. This is despite the fact the landowner (GMH) has no intention of selling to a third party. A land sale avoids this protracted procurement process. The council would have to procure its own architects and build contractors but can do this effectively by using existing pre-OJEU procured frameworks.

It appears that the council has learned some lessons from the Willesden Green Library Centre development. However as with most schemes sold as 'gift horses' it is worth a closer look, particularly, as in the case of Willesden Green, the repercussions of occupying a smaller site as the result of the land sale.

The report says there is not need to specify the housing at this stage but somewhat ominously states:

  A minimum of 5% of all dwellings will be affordable but will be limited in order to fund the sports centre.

 In the Willesden Green development Galliford Try successfully persuaded the Council  that they would  not be able to build the Cultural Centre at zero cost to Brent Council if they had to build affordable housing.

Among the potential losers are the 37 business units in the Bridge Park complex. The Council  suggests they could be relocated in the commercial floor space proposed by GMH, relocate to other council owned space such as Harlesden Design Works or to 'other industrial spaces' in Park Royal. The current conference rooms in the Centre would not be replaced although the large function space would be, although a swimming pool could be installed instead as an option. It is noted that the latter would be a significant cost but would help secure the financial viability of the Centre.  The report notes that the proposed swimming pool on the site of Dexion House in Wembley 'shows no sign of being developed'.  In line with some of the schemes for school expansion a possible domed 5-a-side football pitch on the roof of the new sports centre is suggested.

There are no plans to replace the children's nursery although there is an option for a children's play area. The report merely says that it will 'look at further options to replace the nursery during the consultation process'. Remember the Willesden Bookshop...

Perhaps most importantly, in terms of the predicted shortage of secondary school places in Brent and the dearth of secondary schools south of the North Circular Road, a possible redevelopment involving an 8 form entry secondary school AND a shared sports centre on the site is rejected. This is because:

...there are currently no allocated funds to build a new school (c£18m), a new sports centre (c£9m) and additional flood storage (part of the site is in a identified flood zone) (c£1-2m)

512 new dwellings will of course add to the pressure on school places. It will be interesting to see how these proposals develop and are received by current users of the site. Certainly the Unisys site, empty and decaying for so long, needs to be utilised for something useful.