THE outline business case has been approved for an “ambitious” £77.5 million project in Clackmannanshire that seeks to create a place where the whole community feels welcome.

Councillors approved the outline business case for the Wellbeing Hub and Lochies School project at a meeting on Thursday.

It marks a major milestone following community engagement, with the hub to provide a range of health, wellbeing and learning services that are connected and holistic.

The hub is to feature swimming pools, something that has been lacking in the area since the closure of Alloa Leisure Bowl in March 2020, but will also include much more with a vision for “a destination that the community takes pride in”.

A new Lochies School for young people with complex additional needs is also to be built on the same site in the west of Alloa with a vision that the two would “enjoy mutual benefits from facilities and skills that would not be available to each as separate entities”.

At the meeting, it was confirmed that the predicted development amount between the local authority and Hub East Central Scotland Ltd (Hubco), which is overseeing the project, is £64.9m with an overall capital investment of £77.5m by the council.

In the first year, expenditure of £387,084 is projected, decreasing to £254,028 in the second year, excluding lifecycle and maintenance costs, to be met through the existing leisure budget.

Initial projections are subject to further refinement.

An officer told councillors that the hub will include multiple pools, games halls, leisure suites, cafés, social spaces and a state-of-the-art new Lochies School.

Cllr Scott Harrison – spokesperson for sports, leisure and active living – said: “This is a massively ambitious project for Clackmannanshire, it will deliver a sustainable wellbeing hub that's needed for the area but it also delivers a much-needed state-of-the-art facility for our young learners with the most complex needs.

“The two are interconnected by building but will also be interconnected by a sense of community that will be built up the community together.”

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The development will be built to Passivhaus standard to reduce its energy use.

During questions, Cllr Mark McLuckie asked how far in the future the council can recover the extra costs associated with adopting the standard through savings.

While officers had no figures to hand, he was told this should have a “significant impact” in reducing costs while building to the standard has become cheaper with a more robust supply chain and with more options.

Passivhaus is a rigorous energy efficient design standard, reducing a building's ecological footprint.

It was also revealed at the meeting that unlike with Alloa Leisure Bowl where operation was outsourced to Wasp Leisure Ltd, the hub will predominantly be run by the council.

Officers added that the ambition is to work with third sector partners and other organisations to deliver a mixed economy model.

The project is set to move on to the technical design phase with a full business case and a final recommendation to council to be developed.

The full planning application is also understood to have been submitted with hopes to bring it to the planning committee at the end of October.