Rom Valley Way leisure complex still to go ahead Morrisons confirm

Rumours that the construction of a long-awaited leisure centre will not go ahead have been quashed.

Havering Council and the supermarket giant tasked with building the new Romford Leisure Development, Morrisons, have assured the public that plans are still in place.

The ice rink in Rom Valley Way, Romford, was demolished last year to make way for a new supermarket however the lack of progress has worried some residents.

A spokeswoman for Morrisons said: “We are still working on the details of the proposed new store and therefore unable to provide information on timescales at this time.”

The original plan, drawn up in 2012, was for the leisure centre to be completely funded by the £25m sale of the old ice rink site then in December 2013, the council splashed out an extra £2m for the project.

Cllr Melvin Wallace, Havering’s cabinet member for culture and community engagement, said: “The demolition of the existing ice rink is pretty much complete now.

“From next month, we’ll start to prepare the Western Road site for demolition of part of Chaucer House, which will take some time as we’ll need to install two substations, but things are definitely progressing well.”