Agenda and minutes

            Apologies for inability to attend were reported from Aldermen M. Campbell and R. Newton and Councillors Corr and Mac Giolla Mhín.

            No declarations of interest were reported.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1        Purpose of paper and special Committee meeting

1.1       The key purpose of this paper and the Special Committee is to ask Members to decide –

if they wish to proceed with the option to relocate the existing Olympia Leisure facility into the new West Stand in Windsor Stadium. This was highlighted as Members’ preferred approach in relation to the Windsor redevelopment at the special SP&R Committee meeting on 8th March 2013.

            If this option is selected then delivery would be in two phases:

·      Phase 1 - building the new centre in the stadium and

·      Phase 2 -redeveloping the existing Olympia site as a ‘sports village’ and boulevard entrance from Boucher Road as part of the wider regeneration plan.

1.2       Members are asked to note that intensive discussions have been ongoing with the IFA/DCAL in relation to this project and the proposed lease arrangements and potential community benefit proposals. This paper provides an overview of the current status of the discussions as at Thursday 25th April (see para 2.7).  Members will be updated if this position changes.

1.3      Members are asked to note that this decision is tightly timebound. The money allocated to the stadia projects must be spent within this Comprehensive Spending Review period which ends in 2015 or else it is at risk. Planning permission for the stadium at Windsor has been granted and DCAL/IFA intend to begin construction in September 2013. The stadium includes a structure on the west stand that requires further design if Olympia was to relocate into it. The stadium tender provides an opportunity for the Council to avail of the rates for the overall stadium construction and this should present better value for money than if we proceeded outside this. 

1.4       This paper also gives an update on the ongoing work in relation to the Andersonstown site.

2.         Relevant Background Information

2.1       Members will be aware that in March 2013, SP&R agreed to continue the ‘in principle’ decision to move both the Olympia and Andersonstown Leisure Centres to Stage 2 of the Capital Programme as the first phase of the Citywide Leisure Estate Review; and to further develop the regeneration plans in respect of both sites concurrently as far as possible working toward an investment decision in May with a completion date in 2016. Since this time discussions have been ongoing with DCAL, the IFA and with DSD re the wider regeneration plans.

            Olympia

2.2       Members agreed at Committee on 8^th March that Olympia should ‘in principle’ move to Stage 2 of the Capital Programme. A Strategic Outline Case (SOC) has been developed and a full Economic Appraisal has been commissioned. A number of other comparator options in relation to Olympia have been examined.  All the options are based on a notional 2,500m2 centre (based on the size of the existing Olympia) in a range of locations.  These options have been also assessed against the principles of the leisure transformation programme which were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.