FEARS have been raised that Basingstoke’s proposed leisure park revamp could damage the town centre by being too retail-heavy.


The Gazette reported earlier this month that the £200 million scheme could transform the ageing park into a top nationwide destination for sporting and recreation.


The complex – the biggest of its kind in the country – would boast a new aquadrome and velodrome alongside a shopping village, lakes and nature areas, creating 2,400 jobs.


The plans for the 60-acre Worting Road park, owned by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, were released by NewRiver Retail.


Now Basingstoke’s Labour councillors have poured scorn on the plans, raising concerns about the retail element of the project, doubting whether residents would be able to afford the new leisure facilities and questioning the developer’s relationship with the Tories.


In a statement the group said: “This Conservative administration is selling off the ‘family silver’. NewRiver Retail will become the owners of the leisure park, paying the council rent that is equivalent to what we generate now.

Meanwhile NewRiver shareholders will benefit from the profits and uplift generated from ever increasing prices on the site.


“The plans for retail on the leisure park are substantial and will directly threaten our town centre and Festival Place. We are concerned for the future of our town centre if this plan goes ahead to transform our town’s only leisure park into an out-of-town retail centre with bits of leisure tacked on.


“We want our leisure park to be just that – a leisure park. We want it to be a place where people can afford to go to, have fun, have some quality time.”


The council’s property manager Mike Bovis said: “The company has been through our normal OJEU selection process which is apolitical, as the first stage of the procurement to work with the leisure industry on our behalf, with the aim of a major regeneration.”


NewRiver did not provide a comment by the time The Gazette went to press.