£20m plan for leisure village

A theatre, library, swimming pool, sports hall and climbing wall will be among the facilities proposed in a major new leisure development in Cannock.

Architects and engineers will present possible options for the proposed £20 million Chase Leisure Village at a meeting next week.

The long-awaited study on the new development, which is planned for the site of the Chase Leisure Centre on Stafford Road, will be submitted to councillors at the meeting of the culture and sport committee on November 29.

Six options have been featured in the report. In all of them the existing sports hall has been retained, the cafe has been located immediately next to it and a 350-space car park has been located on the existing site.

Once councillors have decided the best option to take, architects will start drawing up schemes. The project is aimed to be completed by 2010.

To create the village, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat-run council wants to sell off land at Cannock Stadium to housing developers. The proposal is to axe the town's leisure centre, the Prince of Wales Centre and Rugeley squash courts, saving the council £6.2 million over 30 years.