Response to Friends of Friary Grange

Councillor Doug Pullen, Leader of Lichfield District Council, said:

“In response to the open letter from the Friends of Friary Grange, I feel it is important to re-state the council’s position in relation to our leisure centres. We have made a clear commitment both to spend up to £695,000 on essential repairs to Friary Grange and to invest £5 million into a new leisure centre for Lichfield, and we remain fully committed to this approach.
 
“We have gone through the procurement procedure for the Friary Grange refurbishment works and hope to be in a position to announce a contractor and schedule for the works soon. Similarly, despite covid, the development of our proposals for a new centre remains on track and we are aiming to announce a preferred site later this year.
 
“I’m very proud of the work we’ve done so far. We were among the first to re-establish leisure services, working with Freedom Leisure to reopen Burntwood Leisure Centres as soon as we were permitted and, to my knowledge, for some time Burntwood was the only public swimming pool open in the whole of Staffordshire. Phasing the re-opening was important to allow us to manage risk and to understand how best to provide services in a covid-safe manner. We remain fully committed to re-opening Friary Grange and look forward to welcoming customers back to the centre by the end of October.”

Find out more about the future of Friary Grange Leisure Centre at www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/fglcfuture.