Whitwick Parish Council will discuss the future of the Hermitage Leisure Centre tomorrow (Thursday).

Representatives of North West Leicestershire District Council will attend the meeting to address local concerns.

Discussions with the Parish Council were highlighted at last month's Community Scrutiny Committee in Coalville.

At the time, Cllr Michael Wyatt said the report referred to Whitwick Parish Council being consulted on the issue - but he added that it had not.

Cllr Wyatt said it was 'outrageous' that a meeting could be arranged before the July 19 Cabinet meeting as the Parish Council was 'a major stakeholder' in any future project.

He called for a deferral before any discussion could talk place - and discussions were postponed to a later date.

The matter was due to have been discussed at last night's (Tuesday) Cabinet meeting.

Instead, Whitwick Parish Council - and some members of the public - will get the chance to ask questions of council officials.

Hermitage Leisure Centre before it closed last February

Hermitage Leisure Centre closed in February when the new £22.5million Whitwick & Coalville Leisure Centre opened to the public.

The agenda for tomorrow says: "On 9 June NWLDC held a community event to go through the options for the site, which parish councillors and members of the public had the opportunity to attend.

"Since then, questions asked at the Community Office have been: when is the building going to be advertised for sale?

"As the Hermitage Leisure Centre is registered as an Asset of Community Value, what is the legal process for the protection this affords to the local community?

"At the request of North West Leicestershire District Council, members to consider the information now provided to the Parish Council on The Hermitage Project.

"The following representatives have asked to attend: District Cllr Andrew Woodman – Portfolio Holder for Community Services Paul Sanders – Head of Community Services Martin Vickery – Project Support Officer

"There will be an opportunity for members to ask questions and, subject to earlier consideration by the parish council, a potential for some questions from members of the public (within the time constraints outlined above)."

A number of suggestions have been put forward for the future of the site - with Cllr Stuart Gillard admitting he favours demolishing the current site and building retirement bungalows.

At the June 9 meeting in Coalville, residents were told that the former Leisure Centre is likely to be demolished.

Another proposal comes from the Coalville CAN group which wants to re-open the building and turn it into a community facility.

Cllr Gillard is an opponent of those plans and questioned the group about their project,

Coalville CAN has now published their responses.

1) With the land being valued 1.5m are you looking for a gift, or to pay?

A: "The current proposal does not lead to any capital receipts for the Council.

""Whilst we would prefer to use Community Asset Transfer as many councils have done, we are open to a long term lease with peppercorn rent or an agreed asking price.

"The soon to open Community Ownership Fund does allow for bids of up to £1m for council land with a sporting use so long as it does not go into capital receipts and acts as a 50 per cent match fund.

"Our current understanding is that the council have funds of at least £450K already allocated to spend (not including officer time) in the next year and Sport England are interested in the project with their capital funds being announced later this year.

"If there was a sale we would hope the savings to the council in planned expenditure is netted off the asking price.

2) With the considerable costs of putting the building right and maintaining it, how are they going to be met?

"We are not committed to the existing building, we do however think that a further piece of work needs to be done to ascertain the costs to open the areas that could be utilised for the activities that have been proposed, especially considering the entire building was in full public use a few weeks ago. Sport England are able to look at this with us.

"The costs to create the final vision (similar to the council's own) will be ascertained and are likely to be less than the council's estimates, but still substantial. (Estimates £2.5m?)

"This will be raised through a funding matrix including :

• a community share offer*

• social investment finance

• grants including Sport England, The Community Ownership Fund, Landfill Tax Funders, The Lottery and others

"This will be done on the back of a well thought through business plan.

*Coalville CAN is a Community Cooperative, which enables it to do what only companies listed on the stock market can do which is an open Share Offer – an offer of an investment that gives ownership to investors that can start from as little as £250. It also comes with tax benefits, and does something good at the same time! What's different, is that the there is no dividend to shareholders, instead, the profits are directed back into the community. We call them People's Profits.

"Millions have been raised through similar Community Share Offers across the country. We believe Hermitage will have wide local appeal as well as attracting national interest.

3) How many staff are you looking to employ, how will the costs of that be met?

"Our original proposals had two phases. Ownership of the land, followed by sustainable running of the site where a number of independent social and commercial enterprises work alongside each other, paying rent for their area, running their own activity, employing their own staff and supporting their own volunteers. (running their own business!)

"Management of the whole facility will be delivered through a Board made up of representatives from the enterprises supported by Coalville CAN acting as an ethical landlord with a relatively small staff managing the building maintenance, and providing other services like insurance, bookings and marketing.

"This means if one enterprise fails, or becomes unpopular, it can easily be changed or adapt without compromising the entire scheme.

"Early estimates include at least five jobs plus apprenticeship positions to be available directly by Coalville CAN.

"And, with partners employing at least four each with a minimum of five partners – minimum 20 sustainable jobs.

"In addition, we initially included the creation of four apartments for the people that work there providing income, security and affordable accommodation.

4) How sustainable is the funding going forward, what contingency plans do you have if the revenue falls short of the running costs?

"There are two parts:

"Firstly taking on the land, raising the finance and developing the activity centre.

"Secondly, running the site working alongside partners.

"Our 30-year financial viability model indicates the project will be self sufficient and would be self-funded through the activities and the rental from those activities.

"Not only do we think it would be sustainable we estimate it will generate a significant surplus to be put back into the community through the People's Profits.

"This would happen quicker the more initial grants there are to create it.

"Our model of community business has over 90 per cent survival rate after five years as compared to a typical business of 42 per cent.

"Working together, with the Council acting as facilitators and enablers, we think this is achievable.

"One thing that we have suggested, but hasn't been explored, is the green energy generation potential of the site which could be significant. Using green energy solutions will reduce the running costs and be a potential source of income – as well as benefit the local environment."