Demolition of redundant sports centre to create new city centre homes

Published: 13 July 2022

Work has begun to demolish the former Clifton Hill sports centre in Newtown.

The centre closed in 2018 and will be replaced with new city centre housing built by the City Council’s development company Exeter City Living.

Following the closure, the Council pledged to protect the open space to the rear of the former sports centre for public use.

Council Leader Phil Bialyk said he welcomed the start of demolition work as a significant moment in the creation of new homes.

He said: “It is great to have commenced demolition of the former sports centre, at long last, to make way for the construction of new family homes.

“I very much welcome this development and the creation of top quality new Passivhaus homes in this wonderful part of Exeter.

“We are protecting the open space on the site as we said we would, and I look forward to real progress being made in the months ahead.”

Following the closure of the leisure centre and subsequent Council resolutions regarding the sale of the site, Exeter City Living was granted approval for a mixed development of 41 modern houses and apartments on the site.

Emma Osmundsen, Managing Director of Exeter City Living, said: “We are delighted to see the start of our new development at Clifton Mews and delivering Exeter's first Passivhaus homes for open market sale. At a time of climate emergency, with spiralling energy costs, never has there been such a need for energy efficient homes.”

These new homes will be constructed to the highest quality and environmental standards to reduce energy costs and create attractive family homes.

It is expected that demolition works will take between 10 to 15 weeks to complete.

Construction work will then get underway, and the new homes are expected to be occupied early in 2024.

The demolition works are being funded by the Government’s One Public Estate (OPE) programme, which has made up to £180 million of capital grant funding available to English councils through the Land Release Fund.

The fund provides capital grants to remove constraints on council-owned brownfield land, tackling the challenges and complexities that make them unviable, and allowing them to be released for new homes.