A new administration covering Swindon is reported to be seeking to find out what is happening with the long-planned indoor snow centre for the town.
First announced in 2011 and gaining planning permission in 2015, the Snoasis indoor snow centre, then backed by a company named Moirai Capital Investment Ltd, appeared to be progressing prior to the Brexit vote, which it blamed for an £80m hole in its £270m plans when initial delays were announced in 2017.
However by the start of the pandemic, new developers Seven Capital had anchor stores for the wider development in place. The Snow Centre, which already runs indoor snow centres in Hemel Hempstead and Trafford, was named as the new centre's operators.
However, everything has been quiet for the last three years and there has been no start to work. The new Labour administration says it wants a meeting with Seven Capital, the company behind the redevelopment project, to find out what the current situation is.
In early 2020 a Seven Capital spokesman told the Advertiser: "It is a delay, but we are definitely going ahead – there's no chance that we won't be building the snow centre."
Snoasis is just a part of a wider proposed redevelopment of the town's Oasis Leisure Centre, which closed in 2020, and a wider site known as North Star.
Seven Capital has a 99-year lease on the site with around 90 years remaining and a contract with the borough council to construct an indoor snow centre on land adjacent to the Oasis Leisure centre, with part of the deal also giving the company the rights to build houses on a further site. However the terms of the deal are reported to require work to begin by spring 2024.
"One of our priorities is to get the Oasis open again as soon as possible and we need to see what support we can provide, as an authority, to work with Seven Capital to help them achieve their ambitions of rebuilding the Oasis as soon as possible," Councillor Jim Grant, the new cabinet member for communities and joint working told the Swindon Advertiser.