Please read Sport England's continuing concerns about Kingston Council's financially rash plans to demolish The Kingfisher Leisure Centre and replace it with a new centre that will cost when all is said and done well in excess of £50 million

The planning application is being considered by Kingston Council's planning committee this evening at 7.30pm at The Guildhall

Kingston already has £372 million of debt, a whopping £50 million of which is in risky so-called LOBO loans where the lenders have the right - which a local authority cannot refuse - to increase the interest rate and fix the rate on the loans in a rising interest rate environment - and where the local authority has to pay exorbitant costs to exit the loan in such circumstances

Liverpool Council recently had to raise £107 million in order to repay only £65 million of LOBO loans because of the size of the exit fees payable to lenders

The cost is huge

In Kingston council's draft financial statements for 2020/21, the council also declared that it incurred costs of £5 million just on interest payments and changes in value of investment properties, up from only £0.5 million the previous year

We are facing times of unprecedented economic turmoil

In this situation, it is totally irresponsible for Kingston Council to expose us, the residents whose interests it is primarily meant to consider, and who already pay the highest council tax in London to the risk of taking on another £40-£50 million of debt for a project the main aim of which is to support the over-development of Kingston Town Centre, another massively risky and speculative project

The even bigger scandal is the number of years to which Kingston Council's plans are leaving its most vulnerable residents with no affordable swimming pool or leisure facilities