A long-running row over providing access to the £10m Roundhouse leisure centre in Braddan looks to be over.
Braddan Commissioners has now submitted a petition seeking the approval of the Department of Infrastructure (DoI) to purchase a piece of land from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to construct an access road to The Roundhouse for a nominal sum of £250.
The land purchased for the new road is between Ballaoates Road and the car park. That will allow users and tenants of the Roundhouse access to the facility without using the existing route through the grounds of Noble’s Hospital.
Tensions rose when the DHSC blocked access to the Roundhouse through the hospital grounds earlier this year.
But now the rather bitter saga seems to be finally coming to the end and the new access road could be completed before the end of this year.
Clerk of Braddan Commissioners Colin Whiteway said: ‘Hopefully we will get approval to buy the land and get started on the work. We have already done some preliminary work by clearing away shrubs and vegetation.
‘If all goes to plan then we should start work on building the new access road by mid-July.
‘We have done some clearance work already and the proper design for the road has now been finalised.
‘There was an issue with drainage but that has been rectified.’
The building of the new access road should not take too long, weather-permitting, once it is underway.
Mr Whiteway said: ‘It is a 12-14 week contract so it should be completed by mid-October and ready to open by November. It is a huge relief for all concerned.
‘A lot of tenants have signed up for the Roundhouse. The one we have left outstanding is someone to run the café. This has been hampered by issues with the access road as anyone running it would need a guarantee a number of customers would use it.’
A spokeswoman for the DHSC confirmed an agreement has been reached and it is now a matter of finalising the purchase.
The previous deadlock between the government and Braddan Commissioners centred around who would pay for the new access road. But a compromise has been reached with the commissioner getting the land for a nominal fee and financing the actual work itself.
Work to build the 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, Braddan Commissioners 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.
In February this year, DHSC issued a 28-day notice to commissioners which informed them of plans to restrict vehicle access to the Roundhouse site. It then placed signs on the Ballaoates Road informing drivers of ‘no vehicular access’ to the Roundhouse.