Basingstoke Sports Centre fears its “very existence” could be under threat from a proposed hotel.
The centre’s owner, Basingstoke Sports Trust, is concerned the 153-bedroom Village Hotel, complete with leisure facilities, gym and pool at Basing View, will damage its Festival Place business.
“We’re not against fair competition but one of the issues with this hotel is that it’s not being asked to stand on its own two commercial feet,” said James Starbuck, chief executive of the sports trust.
“We’re quite shocked that the council is going to spend so much money and forego so much revenue and income from the site for a hotel that’s on record as saying it needs to generate a third of its turnover from the health and fitness club.
“We feel extremely disappointed. We’re disappointed that we weren’t consulted properly, we’re disappointed that the council hasn’t actually undertaken a property impact assessment on what the hotel would do to the sports centre and disappointed that the council would see that as a good use of public funds.”
The trust recently launched a petition to save the sports centre.
It claims the new hotel will only be viable because of £3million in funding from the borough council to enable the development and the awarding of a 250-year lease on a peppercorn rent.
It also says “additional large-scale leisure provision is unnecessary and will displace our own customers”.
But Cllr Simon Bound, cabinet member for communities and community safety – whose portfolio covers leisure – moved to try and allay the trust’s concerns.
“We have always valued the work of Basingstoke Sports Centre and continue to do so, supporting it since 2000 with £3.5m of capital funding and £1.6million in annual grants (from April 2000 until March 2018) to provide many of the course and sessions people value,” he said.
“We have said to the sports centre that we will work with them to ensure its valuable contribution to the life of the borough is maintained.”
Cllr Bound also said that instead of paying yearly rent, Village Hotels would be paying “an upfront multi-million pound figure, invest £20million, create 100 new jobs and provide facilities employers on Basing View have been asking for.”
He also said that as Basingstoke is a growing town, this meant “more leisure facilities for people to enjoy” and the money spent on the hotel “needs to happen for any redevelopment, regardless of who it is for”.
“I encourage the sports centre to work with us and I encourage those people who have signed the petition to continue to support the sports centre.”
A meeting between the sports centre and borough council is planned.
