Plans to turn Angus park into recycled leisure centre clears first hurdle

It's hoped Arbroath could soon be the home of the UK's first community facility made almost entirely from recycled materials.

Seaton Park design
Author: Callum ClarkPublished 29th Jan 2021

It's hoped Arbroath could soon be the home of the UK's first community facility made almost entirely from recycled materials.

The council's agreed to hand over a disused football park to local charity Showcase the Street.

It plans to create a leisure centre at the Seaton Park site, which would include a 3G pitch.

Fergus Storrier from the charity, said: "Our aspiration is to use recycled low carbon building materials, so that would end up being the first in the UK we're aware of

"We know the inequalities that exist in that area and have had for years now. I grew up in Arbroath, as a young lad I was at Arbroath high school."

A community transfer application was approved for the project yesterday. Work to finalise what percentage of the building would contain recycled materials is to still to be completed.

It's dependent on how much funding the charity is able to pull in for the project, with an overall cost for the building yet to be evaluated.

It's understood work on the project will begin in the next two months.

Councillor Derek Wann said: "He has to have a shovel in the ground before the end of March. The planning was extended last year due to covid, it was originally set to lapse last May.

"Fergus committed that they'll be on site before then to ensure the planning does not lapse. They still have a long way to go but it'll start soon.

"That's another exciting thing, the fact that it's not going to sit there for the next two the three years, it is actually imminent.

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