Exeter City Council has approved its application for planning permission to refurbish and extend Wonford Community & Learning Centre and the adjacent Wonford Sports Centre, combining them into a Wonford Community Wellbeing Hub beside Ludwell Valley Park.
It submitted its redevelopment plans, which prompted no public comments either for or against, in December last year.
They entail demolition of most of the existing buildings on the site, after which a new building will be constructed between the remaining sports and community halls to provide a single entrance to all the facilities. They will include a new cafe, changing facilities, a studio and a gym.
As the city council is also the local planning authority, it determined the outcome of its application at a planning committee meeting held on Monday.
Councillors approved the plans unanimously, but acknowledged that the project could not proceed unless the council can find sources of funding to cover its expected £7 million cost.
Michael Mitchell said the committee supported the project in principle but asked whether the council had considered a phased development to help address its financial challenges instead of following what he described as its current “all or nothing approach”.
Marina Asvachin, who is also a Wonford Community & Learning Centre trustee, said it would be ready to go “just as soon as the council finds funding”.
Aerial view of Wonford community learning centre and sports centre. Image: 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.
It has previously said that planning consent would “increase the chances of unlocking funding” and that it is exploring “a number of funding sources”, including Sport England.
A council bid submitted last year said it expected to seek no more than £2 million in Sport England capital funding towards the £7 million demolition, construction and refurbishment cost of delivering the new 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”.
Illustrative aerial view of planned Wonford community hub. Image: Exeter City Council.
A report on scheme progress which has already been postponed twice is now due before April’s 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 2023.
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.
The council is also intending to sell an ex-playing field in Riverside Valley Park for £2 million for redevelopment that Sport England previously said should be used as a sports and recreation hub.
