OFFICIALS plan to spend tens of millions on a new sports centre for Huddersfield.

Kirklees Council’s Capital Plan for 2013 to 2018 sets aside £30m for the new facility, which is being built at Spring Grove Car Park in Springwood.

Some £15m will be spent in 2013/14 followed by £13m the next year.

In 2015/16 the council is due to invest £1.5m in the centre followed by £500,000 the year after.

The new centre will include a leisure pool complete with wave machine, flume and sidewinder; a teaching pool; two large sports halls, a squash court, a fitness suite and a climbing wall.

The development will include improved lighting to a pedestrian subway linking the site with Huddersfield Bus Station.

The new sports centre will have 124 parking spaces, compared with 443 in the car park before the work began earlier this year.

The Springwood building will replace the town’s existing sports centre on Southgate.

The ageing centre will be demolished, along with Ibbotson and Richmond Flats, to make way for a new 24-hour Tesco.

The retail giant plans to knock down its current town centre store at Viaduct Street to make way for a hotel, offices, bars and apartments.

Tesco will make a contribution to the funding of the £35m sports centre at Springwood – but Kirklees has consistently refused to reveal how much, claiming “commercial sensitivity”.

It is unclear how much, if any, of the £30m due to be spent from 2013 onwards will come from the retail giant. Clr Andrew Cooper, who leads the Greens on Kirklees, has been a long-standing critic of the redevelopment.

He said yesterday: “The council has never publicly said what’s come from Tesco. Obviously, it’s not been sufficient to cover the cost.

“A significant proportion of the overall cost will come from the council taxpayers – though the council has never admitted it.”

Clr Cooper believes the Southgate centre could have been redeveloped.

The Newsome councillor said: “Why not do the work on the existing centre?

“Is it really going to cost that sort of money to improve the existing centre?”

Clr Cooper added that the building work was making life difficult for Springwood residents.

“They have trucks going up and down and problems with dust. The residents are being woken up at early hours,” he said.

“Many of the people are elderly and vulnerable.”