COUNCILLORS have agreed to splash £3.2 million of cash reaped mostly from the Brightwells scheme on improving two of the borough’s leisure centres - including a new soft play and climbing wall at Farnham.

Money from the regeneration of East Street will be used to make major improvements at both Farnham and Godalming leisure centres - and Waverley has also committed to building a new leisure centre at Cranleigh to replace the existing facility.

Proposals include a new £1.5m extension to Farnham Leisure Centre to incorporate soft play and climbing facilities for children, and extending Godalming Leisure Centre to provide additional gym space, a second dance studio and bigger member changing rooms.

The proposal also includes a car park extension to support the expansion at Godalming Leisure Centre, with the total cost of works in Godalming also estimated at £1.5m.

An ‘overall budget contingency’ brings Waverley’s total investment in the leisure centres to £3.22m - with Crest Nicholson’s up-front land payment for the Brightwells development site set to contribute £2.5m towards this sum.

Haslemere Leisure Centre was the most recent site to receive investment with a £4.1million refurbishment in 2014 and Waverley considers no further investment is currently required.

Waverley’s executive agreed the investment at its meeting on July 10 and it was approved by full council on Tuesday this week.

Waverley’s health portfolio holder and Elstead councillor Jenny Else told the executive more than 7,000 people have used Waverley’s leisure centres in Farnham, Godalming, Haslemere and Cranleigh from 2016/17, adding “it’s important to improve what they offer to keep up demand.”

Waverley deputy leader and Haslemere councillor Ged Hall added: “This is good news for Farnham and Godalming residents. The £3.2m is primarily from Brightwells cash.”

Farnham councillor Chris Storey said: “We are investing in the leisure facilities to reap income. I’m in favour of the soft play area in Farnham, that’s a facility not available from other providers in the area.”

Opposition councillors did raise concerns at Tuesday’s full council, however, that Waverley’s promised investment is reliant on the Brightwells scheme proving viable despite the declining retail and restaurant sector.

Paul Follows, Liberal Democrat councillor for Godalming, said: “Projects being funded by this East Street dividend really need to be considered in light of the financial viability of that project.

“A significant section of the restaurant sector is in decline, to the point that some have gone into administration or pulled out of this scheme entirely.

“This project has also taken so long that there are effectively now other schemes in Farnham that will be competing over what business there is.

“At best these proposals look at a financial climate with somewhat rose-tinted glasses, as one is prone to do when they are both politically and financially invested in a project.”

But responding, Waverley leader and Upper Hale councillor Julia Potts reassured members the money for the improvements is already “in the bank”.

Addressing members Miss Potts added: “Can I be quite clear, the Brightwells money is in the bank. We’re not reliant on what happens with Crest Nicholson, we have that money, it’s in the bank, it needs to earn an income and we need to have upgraded leisure facilities that our residents in the borough want - not just in Farnham but borough-wide.

“We’ve always said that we would do everything we could to ensure that the Brightwells scheme benefited our residents borough-wide, and that is exactly what will be delivered with the proposals before you this evening.”

Farnham Residents leader Jerry Hyman also accused Waverley of over-committing Brightwells ‘dividends’ and of suggesting that “just about everything is going to be paid for out of the meagre income from Brightwells”.

“How many times are we going to spend this money?”, he asked, referring specifically to Crest’s £800,000 contribution towards a £3.2m extension at the Memorial Hall, the £5.6m taxpayers’ cash already spent by Waverley progressing the scheme and the £4m public money spent on land assembly.

Mr Hyman continued: “We get quite tired of the government re-announcing their spending over and over again - how many times are we going to do that here and pretend we are going to spend this money to everyone’s benefit over and over again just to justify a scheme that Farnham certainly doesn’t want?”

Fellow Farnham Residents councillor David Beaman, attending his first full council meeting following his victory in May’s Farnham Castle by-election, welcomed the investment “as a regular user of Farnham Leisure Centre” but raised a number of questions including why funds released from the Brightwells scheme are being used to fund improvements outside of Farnham.

Miss Potts slammed Mr Beaman’s motion to defer the decision as “a nonsense”, however, and after reassuring Mr Beaman that she had answered his questions in an email prior to the meeting, the opposition councillor agreed to withdraw his motion.

Summing up, the Waverley leader said: “This is a real win win situation all round.”