the rising cost of materials<\/a> meant the plans struggled to get off the ground.<\/p>\nPhelps said the council recognised some residents had been “frustrated” by delays, which he said were “essential” to ensure the long-term financial and environmental sustainability of the project.<\/p>\n
More from Gloucestershire<\/p>\n
The council has updated the designs for Five Acres since planning permission was previously given.<\/p>\n
“The updated designs include a wide range of accessible features to ensure the building can be used and enjoyed by everyone in the community, whatever their age or ability,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Our aim is to create a facility that serves the community of the Forest of Dean for many years to come.<\/p>\n
“We’re looking forward to getting work under way on site and will be sharing further details about the start of construction in the coming weeks.”<\/p>\n
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70b0a5a0-f6af-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.png.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
The project faced delays due to the rising cost of construction materials, the council said<\/p>\n
The leisure centre at the former Royal Forest of Dean College site will have dedicated party rooms, power-assisted exercise facilities, group fitness studios, and a fully equipped 53-station gym.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the upper floors of the Speedwell Building will become office and community spaces, along with an outreach facility for Hartpury University’s Aspiration Centre.<\/p>\n
The university hopes the centre will encourage young people in the Forest of Dean to stay in education or start their own business in the area.<\/p>\n
Willmott Dixon, the contractor for the site, is appointing sub-contractors so construction can begin, and the council said a start date “will be communicated in due course”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maisie LillywhiteGloucestershire Forest of Dean District Council The leisure centre will include a satellite site for Hartpury University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,63,538,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-429134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fitness","11":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Forest](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/e15f0a90-f6ae-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.jpg.webp.webp\")
Forest of Dean District Council<\/p>\n