London Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced plans to repair the National Sports Centre’s athletics track, install replacement flood-lighting, reopen climbing walls in the indoor leisure centre and upgrade the fitness gym.
Work would continue apace on ‘our vision for the long-term future of the centre’. However, he warned that ‘the level of redevelopment and repair work required is significant and extremely complex’. Work on the vision has been in progress for some time. A consultation was launched by the GLA on the future of the Crystal Palace NSC back in 2018. Then, in March 2020, it announced that £1 million would be spent on design and development work. The results of this were shared with the CPCA last year but have not yet been published.
In November 2021, following a public campaign for the re-opening of the 50 metre and diving pools, Khan promised that they would be repaired. His spokesperson said: ‘The Mayor is committed to the comprehensive renovation of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre’. The pools are yet to re-open.
In November 2022, after the failure of floodlights at the Athletics Track, the GLA repeated: ‘We are committed to the comprehensive renovation of the NSC so that it can deliver positive sporting, community, health and wellbeing outcomes’.
It is to be hoped that the financial and political commitment will remain in place to see the project through to fruition.