A move to demolish an ageing sports pavilion to make for £1m new changing rooms has received the backing of a council’s planners.

The 70-year-old pavilion at the Hydes Road playing fields in Wednesbury will be demolished and replaced by Sandwell Council as part of plans to improve facilities.

The plans for Hydes Road now approved by the Black Country local authority include a new pavilion with changing rooms, showers, toilets, a community room and a kitchen. 

The project was expected to have been completed by March 2025 but the deadline was then pushed back to January 2026. 

However, the latest update on the ‘levelling up’ project shows the council expects the work to be ‘mostly’ finished by March 2026 – a full year later than planned – and the new changing rooms would still remain out of use.

The demolition and rebuild is currently expected to cost at least £1.1million. 

The ageing building, which is only now used on Sunday mornings by local football teams, has become damaged by rot and rainwater and requires “significant investment” according to the council. 

The football pitches would be improved by the summer, the council also said, with the car park not resurfaced until next year when most of the pavilion work has finished.

Sandwell Council said last year that the pavilion rebuild would be the most expensive option and take the longest – with the new pavilion even smaller than the current one – but the building would have a lifespan of 30 years rather than between five and 10 years.

The original Hydes Road scheme included a complete refurbishment of the pavilion, creating FA-compliant changing facilities, new toilets, showers and a community space. 

These plans were approved but later surveys found “significant issues” with the integrity of the pavilion’s walls and said the building had only a “limited” lifespan. 

The original scheme, which included refurbishing the existing dilapidated building rather than demolishing and rebuilding it, would still have cost £1million. 

Hydes Road is one of four green spaces earmarked for improvements in the council’s ‘levelling up’ work which also includes the open spaces at Balls Hill, Wyntor Lane and Lakeside and Norbury Road. 

The project also includes the 600-home Friar Park ‘urban village’ and improvements to Wednesbury town centre and the Millennium Centre.