The government has signed a deal for £250 to sell land for an access road that will bring to an end the long-running row over the Roundhouse in Braddan.

Access to the site has been an ongoing issue between the Department of Health and Social Care and Braddan Parish Commissioners since the leisure facility was opened in January.

Work to build the £10m Roundhouse started in June 2021.

Braddan Commissioners had planned to build a new access road leading to the facility but that scheme was eventually ditched.

During the planning phase of the project, the local authority submitted a copy of a letter to the planning committee from the then DHSC Minister Howard Quayle in August 2016 which apparently granted staff and customers access to the facility via the hospital grounds.

But on December 19 last year, Braddan Commissioners said it was informed of a ‘last-minute decision’ by the DHSC to refuse vehicle access to the facility.

A notice was issued in March asking the Commissioners not to use hospital roads and the car parks, and a threat of a barriers being put up on the site was given.

But then at a Commissioners’ meeting last month it emerged that a price had been agreed for the sale by the Department of Infrastructure of the land to be used for a dedicated access road.

This will run from Ballaoates Road and is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

The government announced on its Facebook page on Friday: ‘The DHSC and Braddan Parish Commissioners have signed the Agreement to Sale, which will transfer the land needed to create a dedicated access road to the Roundhouse to the Commissioners.  

‘The sale of the land, for £250, means that full clearing and construction works can now take place to install an access road directly from Ballaoates Road to the Roundhouse.

‘The work is expected to commence after the Manx Grand Prix, around the first week in September. It is hoped the road will be complete and in use by December 2024.’