FLOODING was among the key talking points when city council health and wellbeing committee members met to discuss the £25 million redevelopment of the Sands Centre.

Carlisle City Council's health and well-being scrutiny committee met for the first time since the local elections last month in the Civic Centre in the city yesterday.

Chaired by independent councillor Jack Paton, the committee listened to reports from various partners involved in the project such as GT3 Architects and GLL.

Deputy chief executive of Carlisle City Council, Darren Crossley explained the background to the project and answered questions from committee members about the redevelopment.

"It is a really important part of what we do," explained Mr Crossley.

"I am also trying to work on other projects that are complimentary to the Sands Centre project."

He added: "We want to keep the facilities going. We need to provide certainty. We also want to support the NHS to see their facilities continue to grow."

Mr Crossley confirmed that activities will be maintained during the construction of the redevelopment, through the use of the old Newman School building and various portacabins.

The old Newman School will be renovated to provide temporary facilities to users of the Sands.

The redevelopment is currently at stage four of the design stage, with the next stage construction of the site. Spending on the project so far is £1.2 million.

Carlisle City Council chiefs believe that over the course of the next 14 years that not proceeding with the project will be more expensive than going ahead, after renegotiated subsidies and maintenance costs of the Sands Centre and The Pools are taken into consideration.

The council's contract with GLL will lead to zero subsidies, on the basis that the redevelopment is completed by August next year.

Deputy leader of Carlisle City Council's Conservative Group, Gareth Ellis said: "We have a series of options, all are expensive. One gives us a swimming pool, that is what we are looking at here."

Newly-elected Green councillor Helen Davidson, told the committee: "It is interesting that the building is being built to deal with flooding.

"There is still going to be work needed if the building floods. The floor (in the sports hall) is to be replaced if the sports hall is going to be flooded."

Paul Reed, of GT3 Architects, who are the architects for the project, replied: "The sports hall will flood (if the Sands Centre was to flood). If we were to raise the entire building it would force the floodwater out to somewhere else.

"It would be pushed upstream or downstream.

"The Environment Agency (EA) has built flood defence walls and they are adding additional flood defence walls around the Sands Centre site."

He also said that even during the severe weather of 2005 and 2015 that the building was not massively impacted by flooding, and that most of the building remained functioning during that time.

Mr Reed added that the EA were satisfied with the plans when consulted and believed they wouldn't pose an unacceptable risk of flooding.

Darren Crossley backed up the points made: "We have worked exhaustingly with the EA to satisfy planning and ourselves. The building is designed to cover a one in every 200 years flooding event plus an extra 40 per cent cover to account for climate change.

"We have taken every step we can."

It was also made clear by Mr Reed that the swimming pool at the site is 450mm higher than the rest of the building, which will mean the risk of flooding in that zone is very low.

Materials used in the other zones will, wherever possible, be flood resilient - meaning that they can be easily cleaned after a flood.

Water will be allowed to enter the building as part of the proposals, instead of actively working to keep it out.

Cllr Paton questioned why a larger pool was not part of the plan, which could potentially host bigger competitions that would bring more people into the city.

However, Mr Crossley emphasised that a larger pool would not be financially viable for the council.

Cllr Davidson asked if local firms would be used by builders Wates to carry out the build, with the firm promising to do everything they can to use local supply chains and workers.

Meanwhile cllr Lisa Brown and cllr Davidson queried the affordability of facilities at the redeveloped site for those with challenging economic circumstance. Representatives from GLL promised that it would have reduced prices for those with less means to pay.

Cllr Jo Ellis-Williams raised concerns about why a climbing wall and squash facilities were not part of the proposals, to which Mr Crossley claimed a decision was made with GLL that took into consideration the demands of sports facilities locally.

After discussing the redevelopment, councillors expressed their support.

Committee members recommended the plans for approval, on the basis that they were given biannual updates regarding the progress of the project and the concerns raised by councillors would be taken into consideration.

The redevelopment will now be discussed by the city council's executive committee on Monday, where members of the committee will decide whether to approve the plans.

If the plans are approved at executive, they will be considered at a special council meeting on June 25.