Like-for-like Beach Leisure Centre replacement to cost £1m a year

Building a like-for-like replacement for the Beach Leisure Centre could land Aberdeen with a £1-million-a-year white elephant.

The wrecking ball looms for the flume-flanked seafront sports complex early next year.

Council chiefs expect demolition to be completed by the end of March, 36 years after the Beach Leisure Centre opened.

But what might replace it is still very much up in the air.

However, Sport Aberdeen chief executive Keith Heslop tells us: “I don’t believe it will be like-for-like.

“The big caveat will be that there’s still the uncertainty around the football stadium.

“And I think the ultimate decision on that may drive whatever the leisure facility provided down there looks like.”

With penny-pinchers looking at every aspect of the regeneration work at Aberdeen beach, he’s looking elsewhere in the city for answers.

The coast is anything but clear: What’s the latest on the Aberdeen beach regeneration?

Initial £61m regeneration work is already under way at Aberdeen beach, including cycle lanes, futuristic new playparks, an amphitheatre south of the Beach Ballroom, new canopies and an eye-catching gateway building.

But city planners are now urging councillors to pause ambitions for the land north of the Beach Ballroom, which was hoped to include a new Aberdeen FC stadium and a leisure centre.

Aberdeen FC's beachfront stadium is still 'an option on the table' - but the city won't pay for it. Image: Aberdeen City Council — Work has officially begun on the multi-million-pound beach revamp. Image: Aberdeen City Council

Turn of the century Aberdeen stars Chris Clark (centre) and Derek Young (right) steal a step on Rachid Belabed (left) during a training session at the Beach Leisure Centre. Image: DC Thomson

Talks continue with the Dons over an £80m replacement ground only metres away from Pittodrie, though there remains tension over the club’s insistence that the city should contribute to the cost of the construction.

But in a report prepared for councillors, planning chief David Dunne pressed for all of this “phase two” regeneration work to be delayed as the local authority is yet to find the cash to carry out the work.

A budget of £150m was set aside in 2021 to fund the updated Aberdeen city centre and beach masterplan.

Mr Dunne’s done his sums now and the combined bill for the ambitious seaside scheme – which councillors never expected to finance alone – comes to £440m.

Aberdeen City Council delays and diminishes beachfront ding dong

Aberdeen City Council was all set to debate how the best way forward last week.

But in a “disgraceful” bit of housekeeping, the SNP and Lib Dems bumped the matter along to the finance committee meeting in a fortnight’s time – depriving 36 councillors of a vote on the city-shaping issue.

The Beach Leisure Centre was boarded up by Aberdeen City Council in July 2023. It is due to be demolished by March 2025. Image: Kath Flannery/DC Thomson

The closure of Aberdeen’s Beach Leisure Centre had been planned long before the council’s disastrous March 2023 budget meeting.

But its fate was sealed when Sport Aberdeen was handed a year-on-year £700,000 funding cut – which resulted in the fury over the closure of yet-to-reopen Bucksburn pool too.

And council officials have made it clear the leisure facilities – which could also include a replacement ice rink – are a separate matter from the messiness of the Aberdeen FC stadium.

Sport Aberdeen: Beach Leisure Centre replacement ‘a bit of a grey area’

However, Sport Aberdeen chief Keith Heslop wants to temper expectations on what the public should expect of a new beachfront centre.

Big leisure pools with flumes, like those at Aberdeen beach, cost a lot to run. Image: Kenny Elrick/DC Thomson

“The Beach Leisure Centre? That’s a good question…” he tells The P&J, exhaling loudly.

“It’s a bit of a grey area as right now we have no direct involvement, and take our lead from the council.

“But I would struggle to see them endorsing a facility that would lose between £500,000 to £1m a year – and that’s what you’re talking about with the Beach Leisure Centre.

“These big sites with flumes are expensive to heat, maintain and run, relative to the income they actually generate.

“They have a strategic value to the city for sure, but that comes at a cost – and it’s up to the council to decide if that strategic value is worth it.”

Beach Leisure Centre: ‘Let’s look at other sports centre to see what works’

Mr Heslop rattles off a list of other sites on his to-do list, like shaping facilities planned for the new Hazlehead Academy and his yearned-for wellbeing centre on the Teca grounds at Bucksburn.

Keith Heslop, chief executive of Sport Aberdeen. Image: Kath Flannery/DC Thomson

He’s also looking at revitalising Westburn Park with investment in the tennis centre and pavilion there, as well as chasing a rollout of artificial sports pitches across the city.

With all those priorities, he seems reluctant to commit to a loss-making leisure pool at the seafront.

He adds: “On the basis there appears a real squeeze on funds for the beach development, there appears merit in peer reviewing our facilities at Get Active at Northfield and Get Active at Jesmond to appreciate how space can be maximised.

“It could also inform us on what high quality services can be offered, how we can best optimise peak and off-peak demand and provide opportunities for similar minded health and wellbeing providers to operate within the building.”