Key Morpeth site is up for sale

The building that houses the Riverside Leisure Centre in Newmarket is to be put up for sale in the coming weeks, Northumberland County Council has confirmed.

Active Northumberland, which manages the sports centre, has reassured customers that the facility will remain open and fully functioning until the new state-of-the-art centre and community hub opens on Gas House Lane in early 2023.

The Riverside Leisure Centre, which is opposite one of the entrances to Carlisle Park, is classed as a ‘key opportunity site’ and uses favoured on these sites in the Morpeth Neighbourhood Plan are “town centre use or sports, leisure, hotel, cultural or community use.”

However, the county council has said that this does not preclude the possibility of other compatible uses locating on the wider site if they are supported by planning policies.

Rick O’Farrell, director of regeneration, said: “What we are doing is testing the market to see what proposals come forward, which we will look closely at and review.

“It is not a case of us selling to the highest bidder. This is an important site and any development on it must impact positively on the town.

“The site is in a highly visible location on the green river corridor and in the setting of the Conservation Area, and as such the scale, layout and design of any scheme will be a key consideration for us.”

A new state-of-the-art £21million leisure centre and community services hub is currently being built on the site of The Terrace on Gas House Lane.

A spokesman for Savills estate agents, which have been appointed to market the site, said: “This site presents developers with a superb and unique opportunity to deliver an attractive, high-quality scheme within Morpeth town centre.

“It benefits from excellent river views whilst being extremely well situated in terms of its proximity to the town centre.

“We are anticipating very high levels of interest from a range of prospective purchasers.”