Five-month delay to £36m recreation centre is 'unacceptable'

A council chief has told councillors the five-month delay in opening the new £36m Blairgowrie Recreation Centre is “not acceptable”.

Contractors are on site attempting to identify where the latest pool leak is as well as considering “other more radical options”.

The unidentified leak in the six-lane 25-metre swimming pool – which has been built with a movable floor – has further delayed the opening of Scotland’s first leisure centre built to environmentally-friendly Passivhaus standards.

The state-of-the-art, low-energy facility has been built for the use of both Blairgowrie High School and the wider community. As well as the pool, it has a four-court sports hall; two-court sports hall/gymnasium; a fitness suite; dance studio; several different changing facilities; an office and a PE classroom, and a floodlit synthetic outdoor pitch.

At a meeting of PKC’s Finance and Resources Committee on Wednesday, April 30, a Blairgowrie and Glens ward councillor asked when locals could finally expect to step foot inside the new sports centre.

Conservative councillor Caroline Shiers said: “We were heading for a post-Christmas opening and then we were going to go and work off our Easter eggs and now we’re looking at maybe it’s our summer bodies we’ll be working on.

“I think the community has been very very patient and that has been appreciated but an indication of a projected handover and then opening time would be helpful.”

PKC’s strategic lead for Property Services Stephen Crawford said: “My apologies from both my contractors’ supply chain and myself for not being able to deliver this on time.

“The pool remains with an unidentified leak. The contractors are currently on site, in the pool, attempting to find the leak but also considering other more radical options.

“A timescale I unfortunately can’t give you at the moment. Last Wednesday the Scrutiny [and Performance] Committee asked for a report on the cause of the delay.

“I would say it has been fortuitous that we’ve had the existing Blair Rec ready during that time but I agree with you five months’ delay is not acceptable.”

SNP council leader Grant Laing agreed: “It is frustrating for us all but it is the right thing to do. You wouldn’t go and take a car that had one bald tyre.

“It’s the sensible and pragmatic thing to do and I’m sure the contractors will not be enjoying this situation either. It is a good example though of having a tandem build because if we had knocked down Blair Rec and said something would be ready in 18 months, and it ends up being two years that is really when people will get upset.

“But yeah I share your frustration.”

Cllr Shiers asked if local elected members could be updated on the logistics of when the handover and demolition of the old Blairgowrie Rec does eventually take place.

She said: “When handover does happen and then there will be the demolition of the existing building, my concern is around the logistics around that in terms of making sure the car park facilities for the new facility are available and we don’t have any knock-on effect on the wider community by not having that operational. I’m guessing the whole schedule has gone out the window a wee bit with this so an additional briefing with local elected members would be helpful.”

Mr Crawford was “more than happy” to work with both the local councillors and Blairgowrie community on that.

Councillors have previously been assured, by Mr Crawford, Perth and Kinross Council will not be financially impacted by the delays and that they are “fully the responsibility of the contractor so they are bearing all those costs”.

Blairgowrie Recreation Centre was originally scheduled to be handed over to Live Active Leisure – to run the facility – at the end of December. At the April 23 meeting of PKC’s Scrutiny and Performance Committee, Mr Crawford told councillors that during the filling of the swimming pool “a number of small leaks” were identified and since then “a number of other leaks have been found and we’ve been working through that over the last three months to deal with those”.

In a previous statement, issued by Perth and Kinross Council, BAM UK and Ireland construction director Paul Carle apologised for the delay.

He said: “The pool is a complex design, and we have been working with specialist contractors to deliver it. Unfortunately, there have been technical issues and it’s right that we take time to correct these before it opens to the public.

“We are sorry for the delay and remain fully focussed of getting the repairs undertaken as early as possible.”

While it will be the first energy-efficient leisure centre in Scotland, it is not the first swimming pool with a movable floor. Loch Leven Campus has a movable floor and one is also proposed in Perth’s new sports centre, PH2O.

A PKC spokesperson said: “We are currently working with the contractor to address the issues at the new Blairgowrie Recreation Centre and our Scrutiny and Performance Committee has been asked to investigate the causes of these.

“Movable floors are found in many pools, including at Loch Leven Campus. Full proposals for PH2O will be presented to councillors in June.”

Building work on the replacement Blairgowrie Rec eventually began in June 2023 – after years of delays. Brexit, the COVID pandemic, a drainage issue and market volatility caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have all been blamed for delays to the project.