WHILE former Horsham council leader Robert Nye said £560,000 had been spent on Broadbridge Heath Leisure Centre during the past six years, the accounts show around £215,000.
Of that figure, nearly £200,000 was spent in the financial year 2006/7, the past agendas of the council’s budget review committee reveal.
That figure is believed to be mainly for resurfacing the astro turf pitch near Tanbridge, so not technically part of the building maintenance cost,
Budgeted for that year was a £219,061 spend on the leisure centre, with no specifics listed, although £195,451 was the actual amount spent.
From 2005 to 2008 £11,000 was budgeted for new access doors and £4,978 spent in the 2007/8 financial year. A further £6,022 for access doors was budgeted from 2008 to 2012 but nothing more has so far been spent.
Car park repairs worth £10,000 were allocated from 2005 to 2009 but nothing spent as Tesco built a new car park for the leisure centre.
A total of £12,611 was budgeted and £3,118 spent on synthetic pitch maintenance in 2007/8 with £9,493 carried forward to 2008/9, when £9,567 was spent - a £74 overspend.
Repairs since the beginning of the 2007 financial year totalled £19,713 and no capital project spend can be discovered in the accounts.
The County Times submitted a Freedom of Information request asking for this information in December but was told it could take up to February 12 to receive an answer.
This was the question: “I understand that £560,000 has been spent on repairs on the centre since 2006/7, can you tell me what repairs have been carried out and when they were carried out?”
The reply was: “The request you have made involves a substantial amount of research, which may take us past the 20 day guideline.
“The information will now be relayed to you as soon as possible and before February 12.”