Saga of failed £1.6m Dudley Leisure Centre sale set to enter third year

Dudley Council’s audit committee was told on Monday (December 8) a report on the authority’s £1.6m deal with developer Amarjit Dhanda to dispose of the vacant Wellington Road centre was not available.

The report, from external auditor Grant Thornton, was requested to explain why the deal collapsed and why it was made public before being completed.

The centre dates back to the 1970s and closed in January 2022 to be replaced by the £18m Duncan Edwards centre on New Mill Street.

The old centre stood empty while owners Dudley Council looked for a buyer to redevelop the 5.7-acre site.

In April 2024 the leader of Dudley Council, Councillor Patrick Harley, revealed a deal had been done with a company called Wellington DLC, headed by Stourbridge entrepreneur Amarjit Dhanda.

Mr Dhanda said he planned to plough £25m into the project for the construction of 150 new homes.

Speaking at the time, Councillor Harley said: “I’m delighted to be doing business with a developer who wants to come and invest in our town centre.”

The sale price of £1.65m was revealed by Councillor Harley during a Dudley Council debate about the deal in April 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 collapse prompted calls for an investigation. Labour’s finance spokesperson, Councillor Shaukat Ali said: “Rather than having money in the coffers we have more questions. I expect a report at the audit committee giving full details.”

In February 2025 the council announced the site had been sold to Halesowen-based developer Revelan for £1.7m.

Pressure mounted on the authority to release the Grant Thornton report.

In August, Councillor Karl Denning, who was chairperson of the audit committee when a report was requested, said: “We were promised it in November, then at the end of January we had been promised it at the end of July.”

In October the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) reported seeing an email sent in June 2025 from the council’s deputy monitoring officer which said the report was received by the council at the end of January but further work was needed for ‘clarification on broader issues’.

A response to a Freedom of Information request by the LDRS said the council did not hold a copy of a finalised report and could not confirm its existence or content.

The latest development in the story caused even more frustration after the most recent audit committee meeting was told the report was still not complete because Grant Thornton had been waiting since January for answers from the council to further questions.