'Deteriorating' Smethwick leisure centre to be demolished to make way for homes

Sandwell Council has revealed it is looking to demolish the 125-year-old Harry Mitchell Leisure Centre in Smethwick as part of plans to flatten the site for housing.

The local authority said the leisure centre was “surplus to requirements” and demolition of the building is currently expected to cost around £711,000.

The council said early plans include between 30 and 45 new houses and flats but could reach as many as 80 dwellings.

The Labour-run council’s cabinet meets on March 11 to make a decision.

Sandwell Council said the leisure centre was the “oldest and poorest” facility in the borough and would need at least £1.5m, according to a 2018 survey, to ‘completely refurbish’ the building and bring it to standard including re-wiring and new boilers.

The leisure centre would also need “substantial” repairs to its roof.

The leisure closed ‘casually’ in May last year and was empty by October – remaining empty since. Parts of the leisure centre relocated to the new Sandwell Aquatics Centre in 2024.

The town’s Thimblemill Baths and Langley Baths were closed as part of the opening of the £73m leisure centre, which was built for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, to the public in 2023.

Sandwell Council revealed at the start of 2025 it was looking to give up Hadley Stadium in Smethwick and close the town’s Harry Mitchell Leisure Centre as part of plans to save more than £500,000 through a review of its leisure facilities.

This week’s cabinet report said the £540,000 saving set out in the council’s budget last year had been met through “alternative sources” but “resolving the future of the site would support the [council’s] wider strategic review.”

“Taking the site and its associated liabilities out of the leisure management portfolio will make Sandwell’s leisure estate more sustainable,” it said.

The report said: “Since [the 2018] survey, further deterioration has occurred, including significant roof leaks and water ingress, resulting in urgent repair needs.

“The building is now considered to be in extremely poor cosmetic condition and requires complete refurbishment, including a new roof, boilers, and re‑wiring.

“Given the escalating costs of repair, the limited scale of the facility, and the availability of high-quality alternative provision in the surrounding area, retention is no longer considered financially viable.”

Last year, Cllr Ashley Lewis, who represents the Smethwick ward, said Hadley Stadium, which sits less than a mile from the £73m Sandwell Aquatics Centre built for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, was once called the borough’s ‘jewel in the crown’ but had been left to crumble on purpose.

Cllr Lewis said the site had been in “disrepair for seven or eight years without any investment” and had been ‘managed into decline.’

Sandwell Council pays £4m a year to Sandwell Leisure Trust to run the borough’s facilities on its behalf but the local authority is still responsible for repairs and maintenance under the agreement.

The council’s contract with Kore Sandwell, the recently rebranded Sandwell Leisure Trust, ends in 2027 following an agreement by cabinet in 2023.

The site of Harry Mitchell Leisure Centre, next to Smethwick Cricket Club, was gifted to Smethwick Urban District Council by its namesake in 1899.

The council said it believed the gifting of the site restricted its use but a commissioned report from 2024 found the restrictions had been released by a deed in 1967.

3Ks Judo Club occupies a self-contained building on the edge of the site and signed a 50-year lease in 1996.

The club has told the council it is willing to relocate to another home in Smethwick and has viewed the former council offices in Ford Street as a potential new venue having returned to the council’s possession.

The club’s committee revealed the Ford Street building would be unsuitable due to its ceiling height and the cost of improvements, but is working with Kore Sandwell and Sandwell Council on a potential move if the false ceiling could be removed.