PLANS to develop the former Five Acres college and leisure centre site could be set for a much-needed boost after the council announced it would be submitting a bid for investment from the government’s £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund.

At a meeting of the council’s Strategic Overview Committee last Thursday (March 25), a report outlined the council’s intention to bid for funding for the project from the multi-billion-pound infrastructure investment, which was announced on March 3 as part of the Government’s budget.

If the council’s application is successful, the grant funding could be just what is needed to kickstart the project, which has so far failed to attract commercial interest due to the financial uncertainty surrounding the leisure and hospitality industries.

The site at Five Acres has been closed since Gloucestershire College relocated to Cinderford in 2018.

Campaigners fought for the site to be developed for the benefit of the local community, with a deal being agreed in principle in 2017 to transfer it to council ownership for a nominal £1.

As part of that deal, Homes England insisted on the closure of the leisure centre to enable its transfer with vacant possession, and the deal was finally secured in October 2019.

Works to accelerate the site’s development started last spring, with a project brief outlining plans for ‘sport, leisure and community-focussed development’ supported by commercial development that was fitting for the location, as the leisure facility would not cover its costs in its own right.

In September last year, soft market testing found that the pandemic was affecting commercial interest in the project, with many businesses in the leisure, entertainment, hotel and food and beverage industries pausing or scaling back expansion.

The council previously agreed to acquire the site subject to an acceptable business case being developed.

It will start incurring costs as soon as the site is acquired, and the council says it therefore requires a ‘clear and viable plan to redevelop the site’ before it can proceed with the purchase.

The council sees the development as a regeneration project that will provide ‘valuable facilities, create new jobs and attract visitor spend for local communities’ and therefore financially needs to achieve a break even position, not necessarily generating a profit or providing a net income.

Discussions with Homes England have been focused on agreeing terms for the site purchase that are acceptable to both parties considering the challenging economic climate, while the council’s Five Acres Project Board has continued to seek a viable business case for the site.

In October last year, plans were considered for a 3G sports pitch and small community and leisure building as a viable option, but the model resulted in an unsustainable annual deficit.

But the council has been encouraged by the announcement of the Government’s £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, which it sees as an ‘ideal grant opportunity’ for the project.

On the development of the project, Five Acres’ Board member Claire Locke told the meeting last Thursday: “We have been looking at number of options on this and will continue to do so.

“The viability of the scheme remains an issue.

“We are looking at things like demolition costs at the moment to see if we can try and reduce costs in those areas that we have identified.

“One very positive thing for us is the announcement of the Levelling Up Fund, with this council being a Priority 1 council for that funding.

“There are a team of officers that are already working on that and looking at how we might take forward a successful bid.

“There are a number of projects across the Forest of Dean as part of that, one of which that we will obviously be considering will be the Five Acres project because of the wide ranging benefits that that scheme would deliver in terms of the council’s priorities.

“Bids for the fund need to be submitted in June so we don’t have a vast amount of time, but I think we’re in a good position because we have done an awful lot of work on this project as well as a number of other projects across the Forest.

“We already have some design work, we have business cases already prepared and a number of studies which you normally need to do feasibility work.

“All of that information will be required, so we’re in a good position to be able to put in a very strong bid to support the council.

“We hope therefore that will be very positive in terms of what we can deliver.”

Claire added that steps were also being taken to ensure that local stakeholders would be involved in the planning and design of any development at the site once a viable model was agreed upon.

“West Dean Parish council are involved, we have a representative that sits on the Five Acres Project Board to ensure that we engage with them properly through this process,” she continued.

“We certainly will be engaging with Coleford Town Council and wider stakeholders such as the school, FANS and various sports clubs that operate in the area.

“At this stage we are looking at the fairly high level viability of this scheme, if we can identify something viable that we can take forward then of course we will engage with those various stakeholders so that they can help shape the design that is delivered on the site.

“We are currently looking at how we will do that in order to have a very effective communication strategy for this project, to ensure that we have the right type of engagement for those people.”