A new £40 million leisure centre is planned for Hove – but may not be on a key seafront site and will take at least four years for a brick to be laid.

After months of discussions, a project board set up by Brighton and Hove City Council has reported its findings on the future of the King Alfred Leisure Centre site in Hove.

The panel said the centre is outdated and urged the council to move plans forward to create a newcentre in the west of the city, either on the seafront site where the current facility is located or inland.

The Argus understands the Coral greyhound racetrack in Nevill Road and a site in Ellen Road, Hove, have been earmarked as possible locations for the new centre.

After sign off from councillors at a meeting next week, the local authority will start talks with a number of developers before deciding which option it wants to follow.

Geoffrey Bowden, chairman of the council’s economic development committee, said: “If Coral came forward with a viable proposition it would be interesting. The site at the greyhound race track offers elements, such as 360 degree access, which the current site lacks. But we are not being prescriptive.”

‘Greater flexibility’

A timetable shows a planning application could be submitted in April 2015 at the earliest with work starting on site between April 2017 and July 2018.

As part of the new centre, the local authority has recommended a 25- metre pool, a large teaching pool and a leisure pool.

It claims these provide “far greater flexibility” of use than a 50-metre pool, even if this is subdivided.

The council claimed an alternative site could be easier to access, mean no gap in leisure centre provision and cost about £7 million less, as basement parking may not be needed.

The City Plan, which will guide the development of Brighton and Hove until 2030, has allocated 400 homes, leisure andcommunity facilities to the area.

Andy Lambor, director at developer Matsim Properties, said his firm had held discussions with the council over including the leisure centre in plans to develop the area around Hove Station.

A spokesman for Coral said: “The stadium in Hove is the best facility in the country. We own it and I see no need for that to change.”

Conservative group leader Geoffrey Theobald said: “We accept that some form of appropriate housing is going to be required on the site to partly fund the new leisure centre and so the council needs to be planning now for the extra school places and other infrastructure that this will require, as pressure in this part of Hove is already acute.”