Bulldozers to move in next month on Dudley's old leisure centre

Plans to redevelop the site of the former Dudley leisure centre moved a step closer after planners agreed to the site being cleared.

Work to demolish the single-storey building in Wellington Road, which has been lying empty for almost five years, will now begin next month.

Gemma Meaton, associate director of regulation at Dudley Council, gave developer Revelan the go-ahead to start the work on November 30.

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The complex closed in January 2022 when it was replaced by the new £18 million Duncan Edwards Leisure Centre in Flood Street.

Halesowen-based Revelan, which bought the building from Dudley Council in a £1.7 million deal in February last year, had asked for confirmation it could begin the work.

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The 5.7-acre site - about the size of five football fields - opened in February 1978, and included a pool, sports hall and car park, which have stood empty for the past four-and-a-half years.

Dudley Council leader Councillor Patrick Harley indicated he would like to see the site developed for housing, but said any residential development would require separate planning permission.

“This is a site of huge significance in the heart of Dudley and has so much potential for residential use,” he said.

“We have long said that we are committed to bringing these vacant sites back into use as part of our regeneration strategy and this is another step in that vision.

“It is almost three years to the day that the centre closed and I am delighted we have been able to open a new chapter for this key site.”

The future of the site became mired in controversy after a previous deal to sell the site to Brierley Hill-based businessman Amarjit Dhanda broke down in 2024.

Mr Dhanda’s company, Wellington DLC Ltd, had said it planned to spend £25m building a total of 150 homes on the site when the £1.65m sale was announced in March 2024.

But the deal turned sour just two months later when the council confirmed it had pulled out of the sale and was putting the site back on the market.

Speaking at the time, Balvinder Heran, deputy chief executive at Dudley Council, said: “While it is correct to say the council had agreed in principle to the sale of the site at Wellington Road, the local authority did not enter into any contract and therefore made no legally binding commitments.”

The council insisted Mr Dhanda failed to provide documents relating to the sale within a specified timeframe, a claim Mr Dhanda described as “simply false”.

The breakdown of the deal was investigated by independent consultants Grant Thornton, but the report has not been made public.