Exeter City Council has applied for consent to replace Wonford Community & Learning Centre and the adjoining sports centre beside Ludwell Valley Park with a new Wonford community hub.
As the city council is also the local planning authority it will decide the application for full planning permission itself, which will entail the demolition of most of the existing buildings on the site.
A new building will then be constructed between the remaining sports and community halls to provide a single entrance to all the facilities.
It will include a new cafe area, changing facilities, a studio and a gym.
Wonford community hub illustrative aerial view. Source: Exeter City Council.
The council has spent more than £1 million on a protracted project development process since the idea of improving the Wonford facilities to create a community hub was first raised in May 2015.
The predicted £7 million demolition, construction and refurbishment cost of delivering the new hub is currently unfunded. The council says planning consent will “increase the chances of unlocking funding” and that it is exploring “a number of funding sources”, including Sport England.
A council bid submitted earlier this year said it expected to seek no more than £2 million in Sport England capital funding for the Wonford hub.
The council finance director previously said that there would need to be “a detailed business case identifying sources of capital funding to deliver the project”, adding: “If there is a gap in resources, it is expected that the business case will identify ways of addressing this shortfall”.
A report on scheme progress is due at the March 2025 council executive committee meeting.
It is not clear whether it will include a business case for the hub, which the council has been planning to produce for more than five years but has yet to publish.
Another community hub building, at Station Road playing fields in Pinhoe, has still not been delivered after receiving full planning consent in February 2020, which was then renewed in June last year.
The council approved £100,000 of funding to enable the project in June 2016, which nearly landed it in court following an investigation by its auditor, then a £1.3 million capital grant in February 2022.
Comments on the Wonford community hub proposals can be submitted via the city council website until Thursday 9 January.
