New centre braced for ‘Oscars’ success
Reporter: RICHARD HOOTON
Date published: 24 March 2010
CHADDERTON Well-being Centre is gunning for an awards double in the region’s property Oscars.
The £17 million state-of-the-art facility has made it on to the shortlist of two categories at the 2010 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors North-West Awards, where the most impressive property schemes battle it out for major honours.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) received 71 entries for the awards, an exceptional number of entrants given the current economic climate, which have been whittled down to 49.
Chadderton Well-being Centre is in the Community Benefit section and the Sustainability category against the likes of Salford’s Media City, Lancaster University Eco-Residences and Ashton’s West End project.
The Well-being Centre is home to a 25m swimming pool, fitness suite, dance studios and library. It replaced Chadderton Pool, which was forced to close in 2007 due to health and safety concerns.
Since doors opened at the end of November, 2009, 700 new members have signed up to use the sports facilities and membership of the library, which is almost double the size of the old building.
Judging panel chairman Andrew Kellaway said: “The awards present an ideal opportunity for the sectors hit hard by the recession to showcase the great work that is under way in the region, despite the challenging market conditions.
“We were delighted to see the entries pour in — once again the tremendous variety and high standard of projects has far exceeded our expectations.”
St Thomas’s Church in Newhey — blighted by fire in December, 2007 — made it on the Building Conservation awards shortlist.
Other categories include Commercial, Design & Innovation, Regeneration, Residential and Tourism & Leisure.
There is also a prestigious Project of the Year accolade, which is awarded to the entry judged to have scored the highest across all categories.
The North-West winners in four of the sections are automatically entered into the national RICS Awards, where they compete against other leading projects from across the UK.
Nominations range from small-scale schemes built by the vision and persistence of one person, through to multi-million-pound developments.
Last year, winners included The Monastery, in Manchester, Liverpool One and Edge Hill University.
The winners will be revealed at a special gala dinner at The Monastery on May 6.
