£42m swimming and leisure facility to be outsourced

Derby City Council is to find a private sector operator for its Moorways Sports Village and Water Park.

A market engagement and options analysis exercise has been carried out to look at the potential interest in an outsourced contract for Moorways Sports Village and Water Park from Spring 2022.

The management options analysis focussed on in-house operation by the Council, outsourced and wholly owned Local Authority Trading Company models.

The Council will now undertake a procurement exercise to select the operator. It says there has already been “strong interest” shown from an “excellent range of leading leisure operators”.

Construction work started on the Derby City Council scheme in February last year.

Councillor Robin Wood, city council Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Tourism, said it was another important step towards opening Moorways Sports Village.

He added: “I’m confident from the range of high-calibre potential operators already showing strong interest, that this move will bring added value to Derby’s health, wellbeing and leisure offer, whilst delivering value for money to the Council. This is a fantastic facility, which will be of huge enjoyment and benefit to the people of Derby. The project itself is progressing extremely well and I’m certain citizens and visitors alike will be excited to use this new facility.”

The facility is set to open in the spring of 2022.