What's going on at the Barbican?

YORK'S Barbican Centre is this week starring in its own TV show as the UK Snooker Championships return for the fourth time. It may be its last starring role for a while.

The Barbican swimming pool closed in April, other sporting facilities at the centre at the end of October. Once the last snooker players have packed their cues and departed the stage in a couple of weeks' time, the auditorium will close too.

The closure is supposed to pave the way for a multi-million pound redevelopment and refurbishment of the centre that will, in the words of City of York Council's Liberal Democrat leader Steve Galloway, leave the city with a venue of which it can be proud.

The council is to be paid just over £10m for the Barbican site by developers Absolute Leisure. About £6m of that is to be spent on a new building behind the Barbican to house a new swimming pool, gym and creche, with most of the rest going on refurbishing the Edmund Wilson and Yearsley swimming pools.

The existing Barbican pool and sports facilities will be pulled down, and Absolute Leisure will spend £2.5 million on refurbishing the Barbican auditorium.

There are also plans for over 240 flats on the site, a new lounge bar/restaurant area, a 135-bed hotel and conference facilities.

Like so many major development projects in York, however - think Coppergate II, think Derwenthorpe - the project has been dogged with controversy.

There are claims of broken promises over the new swimming pool; concerns about delays and spiralling costs; and worries about the developer's request for a late-night licence until 2am - a request that may well be decided at a licensing court hearing that opens today.

Questions should also be asked about whether it was right and proper that the council, which has such a large financial stake in the project, should also have taken the decision to grant planning permission.

The Save Our Barbican campaign is in the process of mounting a legal challenge, in the form of seeking a judicial review of the planning permission granted by the council.

Council leader Steve Galloway, meanwhile, warns that with construction costs spiralling, every delay in starting work will see the city get less for its £10m. If the delays drag on too long, the entire future of swimming at the Barbican could be under threat.

We have outlined some of the main questions hanging over the project's future:

'Betrayal' and broken promises

BOTH the Save Our Barbican (SOB) campaign and the opposition Labour group on the council accuse the ruling Liberal Democrats of breaking their promises over the size of the new pool to be built at the Barbican.

When it went out to consultation for the second time in July last year, residents were given two clear choices: an eight-lane county standard pool or a six-lane community pool.

Following the consultation, there was a narrow majority in favour of the smaller six-lane pool, as this would have left more money to pay for refurbishment of the Edmund Wilson and Yearsley pools.

A report to the council executive last week, however, referred to a five-lane pool, with a sixth lane only optional.

A smaller toddlers' pool, which formed part of the proposals consulted on last year, is also now only optional.

"Our view is that we're being continually short-changed," says York cabbie Ernie Dickinson, one of the leaders of SOB. "They the council should not make promises if they don't intend to keep them." Coun Galloway stresses that the "hope and expectation" is still that the pool can be six lanes. But every delay in the project will increase costs.

"What we can buy with our money is reducing every week," he said.

Judicial review and delays

MR DICKINSON says there are three grounds for seeking a judicial review over the planners' decision to approve the Barbican plans.

He is reluctant to discuss what these may be, but says SOB's lawyers are "confident" of winning the right to such a review.

Mr Galloway says the council is confident that SOB will not be granted a review. If it is, the delays could have "very serious consequences".

In a warning apparently aimed at stopping objectors going ahead with their legal challenge, he claims any further lengthy delays could put at risk the future of swimming and fitness facilities at the Barbican site (although not the auditorium).

Labour councillor Alan Jones, opposition spokesman on leisure and heritage, backs SOB. It is part of the democratic process that opponents of the scheme should have the right to make such a challenge, he says. "Is his Coun Galloway's party democratic or not?"

Potential conflict of interest

REGARDLESS of whether or not SOB wins the right to a judicial review, is it right that a city council which stands to gain £10m from sale of the site should itself have been in a position to grant planning permission for that same site?

Yes, says Coun Galloway.

First of all, the money gained from sale of the Barbican will be used for the benefit of the people of York - and what is wrong with that? And second, there is a built-in safeguard to prevent any potential conflict of interest. The case was referred to the Government Office, as it was bound to be by law. The Government Office decided not to call the development in for a public inquiry.

Coun Jones agrees that, on this issue at least, everything was above board. The case was handled "absolutely correctly", he says.

Shortfall in funds to refurbish Edmund Wilson and Yearsley pools

LAST week's report to the council's executive revealed that spiralling construction costs could reduce what the council's £10m will buy.

There may well not be enough to pay for everything the council wants.

There is likely to be a shortfall of at least £2m on the amount needed to build the new pool and gym behind the Barbican, and to refurbish the Edmund Wilson and Yearsley pools.

How badly that refurbishment is needed was demonstrated last week when one of the two pools closed briefly, while the other remains closed because of problems with its roof.

Coun Galloway says one possibility is to try to get firms to tender for all three pools (refurbishment of Edmund Wilson and Yearsley and construction of the Barbican pool) in the hope of getting best value and bringing financial certainty.

But again, any delays are likely to increase the shortfall.

Was the Barbican deliberately allowed to become run down?

SOB claim the previous Labour administration neglected the Barbican pool over many years by failing to invest in it properly, so that customers went elsewhere.

Coun Galloway agrees there was a long-term lack of investment by the previous Labour regime.

"When we took over, the heating system was clearly on its last legs," he says. "When you used the showers, you either froze or came out looking like a lobster."

Coun Jones rejects the suggestion that there was a deliberate policy to run down the facilities. Perhaps the facilities were not maintained as well as they could have been, he says. "But we did our best with the money available."

Alternative sporting facilities

UNDER the terms of the council's own local plan, Ernie Dickinson claims, sporting facilities should only be closed if it can be demonstrated there is no need for them.

That is clearly not the case with the sports facilities at the Barbican.

Alternative sports provision at All Saints and Oakland schools will not be an adequate replacement, because they will not be open to the public in school hours, he says.

Nonsense, says Coun Galloway. It makes a lot of sense to make better use of school facilities, and they will be open to the public in the evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays.

When sports facilities at St John's College are taken into account, the city will be far better off in terms of sports provision than it was 20 years ago.

Late-night licence at the Barbican

MAGISTRATES were meeting today to consider whether to grant an extended drinks licence until 2am at the Barbican, as Absolute Leisure would like.

SOB is opposed to the idea, on the grounds the centre is in a residential area. "It would be totally wrong," says Ernie Dickinson. "It would be spreading the town centre's late-night drinking culture into a residential area."

Steve Galloway insists that Absolute Leisure plans late-night dinner dances rather than nightclub-style entertainment.

"You need to look at the track record of Absolute Leisure," he says. "I expect it the Barbican to be a well-run facility."

Even with the 240 or so new flats that will be on the site, the area around the Barbican is anyway no more a residential area than any other area in central York where there is late-night activity, he insists.

Updated: 10:26 Tuesday, November 16, 2004