PLANS to build a £3.1 million sports hall at Oakfield Sports Centre have been approved.
Yesterday it was confirmed that the redevelopment of the site had lost ‘fiscal stimulus’ funding but had been allocated money from government underspends instead.
Proposals to build a new multi-sport facility were initially rejected by the Planning Committee last October, but were adapted and resubmitted shortly after.
Setting out the changes at a committee meeting yesterday, Justin O’Brien, a regional director at Space and Place Architects, said the new design included 98 car parking spaces, four motorcycle spaces and storage for 52 bicycles.
Mr O’Brien said a plan was being developed to ensure multiple events did not take place in the area at the same time, and agreements had been made with Hautlieu school and Highlands College about using their car parks outside of teaching hours.
‘In terms of the building itself we have managed to move some of the events further inside [under the curved roof] to allow us to drop the building by about 700mm. We are hoping that we can actually improve on that when the new design comes in and get closer to 800mm.
‘We have also reduced light spillage and put in some grey opaque cladding – which breaks up the massing – and increased the timber cladding. We think this, combined with the lowering of the height, will make a significant difference.’
He added: ‘We have also increased the landscaping – we have increased the amount of trees and planting.
‘We have decent-sized trees and hedging going in to screen the main building. This is all to address the green backdrop zone policy.’
A single letter of objection to the scheme was received from Robert de la Mare, a nearby resident, who commented on the height of the building.
In response, Mr O’Brien said: ‘We have got badminton, trampolining and we have actually moved some of the activities to the centre of the section to lower the roof as much as possible, but there is nothing we can do further.
‘We are already pretty much on the edge of what we can do with the spoil. Excavating [the ground beneath the hall] would probably take a few more millimetres off but we cannot go much deeper because of what we could do with the spoil and then we get level issues and issues of access.’
Constables Philip Le Sueur and Marcus Troy as well as Deputies Graham Truscott and Jeremy Maçon all voted in favour of the development.
However, Deputy Steve Luce objected – saying he did not accept the building’s roof could not be brought down lower.
Deputy Luce also claimed developers were trying to squeeze the facility into a small space and raised concerns over traffic.
Assistant Economic Development Minister Hugh Raymond, who has political responsibility for sport, said his team would likely begin construction within the next 28 days.
He added: ‘We can now start moving ahead with it.
‘There are always going to be parking problems – even if it was at the Waterfront or somewhere else – but the main thing is we got it through four votes to one.’
