THE council has pledged to deliver a brand new swimming pool in lieu of Alloa Leisure Bowl.

Clackmannanshire Council has confirmed that work is ongoing to draw up plans on the future of leisure provision in the Wee County after the closure of the 35-year-old facility was agreed.

One of the options being developed, and to be discussed at a future meeting in May, is to create a leisure hub as part of a wider Alloa South community campus.

However, the local authority also found itself drowning in criticism for having no options in place before the closure of the Leisure Bowl was agreed.

As reported elsewhere today, council leader Ellen Forson explained the leisure estate has been under review, but officers had to be shifted into roles dealing with the pandemic last year.

Councillor Craig Holden, convener of the Place Committee at council, said in an update: "The decision to close the Leisure Bowl and cease operations from there has been taken in response to the financial reality of the situation and the ability of the council to deliver something so much better.

"Plans are in place and work is underway to ensure that councillors will have all the information necessary in May to deliver a modern and sustainable alternative to a facility which is no longer fit for purpose.

"This will include options for a state-of-the-art swimming pool."

Cllr Holden: "This council knows what it wants to achieve, and has agreed a timetable and clear way forward on how it is going to do it."

Some confusion over that timetable had to be cleared up by council officers at the decision meeting on Thursday, February 11.

Initially, council documents said the options paper would be brought to Kilncraigs for consideration by March 31 – as outlined in the officers' recommendations to be agreed on the day.

However, an activity timetable in the same paper put this back to May.

When asked by Cllr Martha Benny, a council officer said: "I think I may require longer than March 31 to actually finalise that and so what I'm indicating in March is an update and what I'm working towards in May is an options paper with a decision to be in front of council, which will tie in round about the conclusion of the handback.

"That will also include interim arrangements."

He added: "I'd be very conscious [in] that there's quite a bit of work to be done with user groups and consultation works to be done and also negotiations, potentially, with providers on what the interims might look like."

The officer confirmed that a "huge amount of work" lies ahead, but "a lot of work has already been done".