About our proposed Houghton Regis community and leisure centre consultation
Consultation closed: Wedneday, 16 February 2022
Consultation opened: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
We aspire to provide Houghton Regis residents with first-class leisure and community facilities. The existing leisure centre is tired and the facilities are dated. We want to modernise the leisure provision. This led to a successful £20 million government Levelling Up Fund bid. We are also contributing over £5 million to create a much-needed £25 million community and leisure centre at Kingsland.
Fundamental to the successful funding bid was the ability to progress the design quickly, submit a planning application and, subject to securing planning consent, start works in late 2022. We have to work to a tight and strict timetable.
Background
Houghton Regis is growing and we are making sure this is done in a positive and attractive way that benefits the whole community. We are investing in its future.
A series of complementary schemes and ambitious developments are being built or are in the pipeline. They form a wider plan for Houghton Regis offering first-class facilities and services for all residents.
The £25 million investment in the new community and leisure centre at Kingsland is a real boost to the local community and will become central to the rejuvenation of the area. It will open up the site which sits in a prime position between the existing and new communities. It will connect Linmere, the major new development of over 5,000 homes, with the existing established communities in Houghton Regis. It will provide quality indoor and outdoor space, encouraging community cohesion and a sense of belonging for all.
The new, bigger leisure centre will become a community focal point. It will encourage more people to take part in physical activity helping them to have a healthy and active lifestyle, with all the associated benefits exercise can offer.
It will offer more than leisure though. The new centre will be a welcoming place to meet up and socialise as well as exercise, and it will help bring the existing and new communities together.
The centre will offer exceptional facilities for local people.