QUESTIONS have been raised about the Coventry Central baths and the Elephant building after it was revealed it had cost more than £900,000 to maintain the complex over the past three years.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request showed £912,955 has been spent by the city council on the maintenance, security and utilities at the Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre on Fairfax Street from when it closed in February 2020 to January 2023.
Of this, £353,875 was spent on utilities while maintenance cost taxpayers £95,254.
And £463,826 has been spent on security over the last three years.
In 2019 the city council’s cabinet agreed to decommission and close Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre once The Wave was complete and open and to dispose of the site.
The council entered into an exclusivity agreement with Rainier Developments Ltd in February 2020 and the swimming baths closed later that month.
This exclusivity agreement meant Rainer has to bring forward a delivery strategy for an ‘acceptable development.’
Coun Jim O’Boyle claimed there was no need for an FOI on this issue as the information was freely available.
He added: “This building is Grade II listed and we have a legal obligation to maintain it – if we don’t we would be potentially open to challenge from Historic England.
“We’ve always wanted to find an alternative use for the site but we’ve got to caveat that with the fact it was closed and decommissioned as it wasn’t in a great state.
“The alternative would be to seek demolition which is something we have never done, would cost a lot more because of the listing and would not necessarily happen.”
Coun O’Boyle said he hoped an announcement on the future of the building could be made within the next few weeks, adding if it was not for the Covid pandemic the situation would have progressed quicker.
Stephen Smith, who is the Conservative Party candidate for Sherbourne in this year’s local elections and submitted the FOI request, said: “While the building is Grade II listed, redevelopments like Battersea Power Station have shown how new life can be breathed into historic buildings whilst maintaining their architectural integrity.
“To me, this Labour Council has no vision and I believe we should be talking to as many partners as possible to make the best use of this prime city centre space instead of it remaining a burden on the Coventry taxpayer.”
In August 2020, the Coventry Citizens Party started a petition about transforming the Elephant Building into an arts and exhibition centre.
Its founder Ian Rogers said he was ‘hardly surprised to see more excuses’ about why nothing had happened to the building and added that ‘sadly neither Labour nor the Conservatives had any vision for it’.
