Halewood Leisure Centre

Our initial feasibility work, underpinned by extensive community consultation and a needs analysis in the locality, identified the need for a facility providing a sports hall, 25 metre competition pool, fitness, dance studio, boxing, synthetic turf pitch and outdoor pitch provision.

We were then appointed by Knowsley MBC to prepare its submission to Sport England. The detailed business and development planning and community consultation secured over £4 million towards a total project cost of £7.5 million. Work included the negotiation of planning gain and substantial redesign of original architect plans to bring the project in at a manageable cost.

Halewood Leisure Centre, opened in 2002, offers courses, sessions and activities for all members of the community to help people make the most of their leisure time. Sport England cites it as best practice demonstrating how new facilities have a positive impact on participation, encouraging the community to get more involved in sport and physical activity.

Kirkby Leisure Centre

KKP was subsequently commissioned by Knowsley MBC to undertake a feasibility study for the new £12 million Kirkby Sports Centre. It combined extensive needs/ demand analysis, with detailed business and development plans. We assessed the market then serviced by the existing Kirkby Sports Centre and Kirkby Swimming Pool, the quality of the customer experience and the benefits of rationalisation to ensure quality, cost-effective service delivery.

We identified a workable, co-ordinated approach to the rationalisation of sports facilities in Kirkby, the community case for assumptions made and mapped out detailed programmes to ensure that the whole community would benefit from the new facility developed.

The new Kirkby Leisure Centre, opened in September 2007, comprises state of the art facilities including a large (25m x 8 lane) swimming pool, a learner pool, sports hall, fitness gym and two multi-purpose halls. It is a symbol of the potential of quality partnerships between the Council, local schools, youth groups, local sports clubs and community representatives.