Go-ahead expected for sports centre project

Kirklees Council has entered into an agreement with Tesco which will see a new store built on the site of the current Huddersfield Sports Centre, which will be demolished.

In return, the council will receive Tesco money to build a new sports centre on the Spring Grove car park, which will mean the loss of more than 440 long-stay car parking spaces.

Council officers are recommending councillors approve the proposals.

A planning report says the sports centre/Tesco plans, along with an office development at St Andrew's Road, will mean the loss of 1,012 car parking spaces. But 1,057 spaces will be gained from other land developments and creating extra spaces in existing car parks.

However, the report says that many of the new spaces are remote from the town centre, so it is "essential" to convert 225 unused spaces on the upper decks of the bus station car park.

The council says it has a number of options to introduce further car parking in response to changing economic circumstances to ensure "the continuing viability of the town centre".

Critics of the sports centre plan have raised a number of objections.

Huddersfield Civic Society, although welcoming the new facilities, said access to the sports centre "via an improved underpass still appears uninviting and as such possibly dangerous for women and children".

The society says the loss of long-stay car parking spaces has not been dealt with adequately in the application.

The Green Party said the loss of car parking will have a negative impact on any long-term pedestrianisation strategy and the Tesco plans will have a negative impact on the town centre. And the Greens have complained that the facilities will not be to competition standard which is a "missed opportunity".