AN investment of more than half a million pounds is planned in new gym equipment at a leisure centre that was overlooked for redevelopment.

Bids to refurbish Caldicot Leisure Centre were twice rejected by the previous UK Government but Monmouthshire County Council has now promised investment in gym equipment.

It has already started work on a new £456,000 all-weather 3G football pitch at the centre, that adjoins the secondary school, supported by the Cymru Football Foundation and Sport Wales.

Councillor Paul Griffiths, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for the economy, said it is planned to invest £600,000 on new equipment at the council run leisure centre.

He said: “Our leisure team have developed an investment plan for the internal provision with £600,000 to be invested in gymnasium equipment.

“Experience in Monmouthshire, and elsewhere, is the best gymnasium equipment will attract users and provide a commercial return on the investment. Thoe plans have been developed and funding is being sought and will be gained from a range of sources to implement that.”

Cllr Griffiths said the “bigger picture” of development of the leisure centre would need to be considered by the town’s ‘placemaking group’ – a body that brings together county and town councillors and others – to consider regeneration projects and funding.

That group has, under the latest round of funding, agreed to provide £150,000 towards the replacement of the existing skate park next to the leisure centre.

Conservative opposition leader Richard John said his group welcomed the investment in the skate park but described the leisure centre as looking “quite tired and dated” and in need of investment to “bring it up to the standard of newly refurbished sites like Monmouth”.

The Mitchel Troy and Trellech councillor asked: “When can we expect the administration to bring forward plans to fully refurbish Caldicot Leisure Centre?”

Cllr Griffiths said when Labour came to power in Monmouthshire he “inherited what was not an investment plan for Caldicot Leisure Centre but a somewhat disparate and disconnected Levelling Up bid which did not get the support of the UK Government at that time and it has been an effort, since that time, to pick up the pieces and consider an alternative way forward.”

The Chepstow councillor said the leisure centre, and new skate park, will “attract footfall” but said: “It should be seen as part of what has to be now a more incremental approach to that leisure facility.”

The placemaking group has also recently appointed a consultant to work with it and the community to establish a vision for the town. Cllr Griffiths said “all discussions indicate to me…the role of leisure facilities is a core part of the future of Caldicot as a destination for local people and people along the Severn Estuary.”

He said he process “should be allowed to take place and we can see what emerges from that as a prospectus for leisure facilities in Caldicot.”

Cllr John was the leader of the council when a bid for Levelling Up funding was developed, in 2022, while a further bid, submitted after Labour came to power at County Hall, failed to win the support of the then Conservative UK Government in November 2023.