Basingstoke Council can't decide on temporary ice rink issue

A meeting of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council's resident services committee on Wednesday, July 17, discussed the idea of creating a temporary ice rink in the Leisure Park car park, while the current rink receives a long-awaited refurb.

Councillors considered two proposed options to meet the standards for a fully enclosed and secure ice rink complete with a 56m x 26m ice pad, staffing and operations management, toilets, seating and other amenities.

The first option is to build a real ice structure, while the second is to use synthetic ice. In a council-published report, the real ice structure was deemed not feasible, while the synthetic ice pad was quoted to be in excess of £2m.

READ MORE: No ice hockey in Basingstoke next season as rink to close for refurbishment

Basingstoke Buffalo in action (Image: Graham Merry)

In the meeting, councillors discussed not only the viability of both options but different ways where the costs could be covered.

In February Labour councillor Cllr Alex Lee proposed a motion that aims to address the longstanding grievances surrounding the management of Basingstoke Ice Rink, which is owned by Standard Securities Ltd and operated by Planet Ice (Basingstoke) Ltd.

Speaking at Wednesday's residents services committee, Cllr Lee said: "Quite frankly, at no point was there a discussion on what the bare minimum was required in order to provide the continuity of ice in Basingstoke.

"If they had had that discussion, the numbers in the report would not be those numbers. These are rehashed numbers from a former report on providing temporary ice in a building from around 2019 in essentially a proper building."

Cllr Lee went on to explain that Slough Council was previously able to build a similar site for "just under £500,000". Which he said is not "anywhere near £1m" including inflation.

He continued: "This is a further instance of this issue being kicked down the road. Again. It's happened under successive administrations in this council.

"We would have known that the ice rink needed to close in order to do repairs. The pre-work could have been done. It hasn't. And now we are faced with a situation where the pre-work and the time to do it essentially lines up with the work that is in with the repairs.

"We have got children who are now going to have to travel across the southeast to play ice hockey, to go figure skating, we have got coaches who are essentially small businesses of their own, that have got nowhere to work from."

SEE MORE: Basingstoke council motion to take steps to revive ice rink

Cllr Sean Dillow, Conservative, said: "Unfortunately, I feel like the costs that were obtained in 2023 for a large synthetic ice rink are really not fit for purpose. These figures give the impression that any temporary rink would be too expensive and too lengthy to install, £2m is astronomical."

He went on to ask the council's co-leader Cllr Gavin James (Lib Dem) if he would commit to providing a real ice, temporary ice rink for a 12-month period if the price was less than £1m and if he would commit to asking officers to re-look at the costings and focus on get quotes for a real ice rink that is about half the size of the current one.

Cllr James responded: "They can't start the work until the deal is agreed. It is absolutely right that we take this seriously, do it properly and get it right.

"I wouldn't want to commit to spending £1m because I would need to know where I'm going to get the £1m from. The fact that it will take 18 months to set this up."

After much back and forth between the council, Cllr Jacky Tustain, Labour, outlined the next steps the council will take.

She said: "People aren't content with this report as it currently stands. We need to go back, there needs to be that clear discussion with the users to get the basic minimum.

"Those conversations need to happen and there needs to be something we can work with. Once we get that, we can work out whether or not it's feasible."

Councillors agreed they would need to find providers and operators to run the temporary rink, should it be created.

Cllr James promised an update would be given by the time of the council meeting on September 18.

He reiterated that "until you know when, and for how long" it is "really difficult" to make a decision on the issue.

Cllr Tustain concluded: "The ask from this committee is that we make sure we get some concrete negotiations and a written report from the users to date explaining the different options.

"Then we bring that back in September. We will cover the whole motion in September."