Tonbridge Bean

Tonbridge’s New £20.6m Angel Centre Gets Green Light as Councillors Back Construction

TMBC unanimously approves Tonbridge’s new £20.6m Angel Centre, with construction due to begin in January 2027. Community access and affordability were key concerns raised ahead of the vote.

Tonbridge’s new Angel Centre has been given the green light to proceed to construction after councillors at Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (TMBC) unanimously approved the £20.6 million project at a full council meeting on Tuesday 20 October.

The decision marks a major milestone for the long-awaited replacement for the ageing Angel Centre, which will be built on Sovereign Way Mid Car Park. Construction is expected to begin in January 2027, with the new facility scheduled to open in 2028.

As reported in The Tonbridge Bean’s previous article, Angel Centre decision day: councillors to vote on whether Tonbridge’s new leisure centre gets built, the meeting represented a crucial decision point for the project, allowing it to progress to RIBA Stage 5 – the construction phase.

Council leader Matt Boughton confirmed the unanimous decision in a Facebook post on 21 October, describing it as the culmination of three years of work to develop the plans.

He called the £20.6 million scheme the biggest investment TMBC had ever made, adding that it was fully funded without the council needing to borrow.

For the council, the new centre represents a major investment in Tonbridge’s leisure facilities and a significant step in its wider ambition to regenerate the town centre.

However, community access was a key issue during the meeting, with representatives of the University of the Third Age (U3A) asking councillors to ensure that regular bookings, affordable room hire and the continued availability of meeting space would be protected in the new centre.

Why a new Angel Centre?

The council says the existing building has reached the end of its operational life and faces significant repair and maintenance costs.

During Tuesday’s meeting, an officer told councillors that the current building had reached the end of its economic life. Refurbishment could cost up to £19 million, including sunk costs, while a major refurbishment would also affect the centre’s 70 staff and disrupt activities during the works.

Planning permission for the new development was granted in July. The October decision was therefore about proceeding with construction rather than determining the planning application itself.

The council says the project has been shaped by multiple public engagement exercises, with feedback from residents and existing users incorporated into the design. Consultation showed strong support for the proposed facilities and for retaining the much-loved Angel Centre name.

The new building will also be the first development delivered under the Tonbridge Town Centre Masterplan, a framework intended to create a more attractive, sustainable and thriving area to the east of the High Street.

Cllr Adem Mehmet, cabinet member for Infrastructure and Tonbridge Regeneration, described the development as a major investment in leisure and community facilities.

He said it would be the first civic building of this scale to be built in Tonbridge for more than 40 years and would transform this part of the town centre.

What will the new centre include?

The proposed facility will offer a wider range of leisure, health and community amenities than the current building.

Plans include:

  • Children’s soft play facilities and party rooms.
  • A public café.
  • An immersive spin studio.
  • An expanded gym with enhanced equipment.
  • Three multi-purpose studios for flexible use, including community meetings and events.
  • Step-free access throughout the building.
  • Inclusive equipment and an active wellbeing suite.
  • Modern audio-visual equipment.
  • Energy-efficient heating and ventilation, with a low-carbon design.

The council says the multi-purpose studios will provide flexible space for community meetings and events involving up to 332 people.

During the council meeting, officers also highlighted design changes made in response to public feedback, including a retractable wall in the meeting rooms to improve flexibility, additional storage, arrangements to maximise capacity and hearing loops to improve accessibility.

The new centre will continue to be operated by tmactive, the not-for-profit leisure provider that already manages the Angel Centre and other leisure and sporting facilities across the borough.

Importantly for current users, the council says the existing Angel Centre will remain open, with an uninterrupted programme of activities and events, while the new building is under construction.

How will the £20.6 million project be funded?

TMBC says the project is fully funded without the need for borrowing.

The construction costs will be met through council reserves and existing budgets, alongside a £1 million contribution from tmactive.

At Tuesday’s meeting, officers said the council expected to be debt-free once the project was completed.

The council has presented the scheme as a major investment in the future of Tonbridge, with the new building intended to provide modern facilities while avoiding the ongoing costs and limitations associated with the existing centre.

Community access remains a key concern

Despite the unanimous vote, questions over the future of community meeting space remained prominent during the meeting.

Representatives of the University of the Third Age (U3A), a local community organisation, addressed councillors about how the new centre’s community facilities would work in practice.

Rosemary Martin spoke about “how the promise of a community and leisure centre will be decided in everyday practice”, highlighting the difference between rooms being available to book and having guaranteed access.

“Bookable is not the same as protected for community use,” she warned.

The U3A representative stressed that Tonbridge’s position differs from that of many surrounding villages, where organisations can use village halls and other local venues. For groups in Tonbridge, the Angel Centre is an important source of meeting space, making capacity, availability and affordability particularly significant.

While welcoming the proposed café and soft play facilities, the representatives emphasised that these would not replace dedicated meeting rooms for community organisations.

A central concern was that community bookings could find themselves competing with commercial leisure activities for space.

The U3A asked the council to ensure there was a minimum allocation of daytime access for community groups, with rooms available at affordable rates and safeguards to prevent access being reduced in future.

Penny Davies, also speaking on behalf of the organisation, asked how access to community rooms would be secured and how other organisations could receive comparable assurances.

The U3A has received assurances from tmactive’s chief executive that its existing Wednesday booking could continue in the new centre. However, the representatives wanted similar protections to be available to other groups, rather than relying on individual arrangements.

They asked councillors to satisfy themselves that these safeguards were secured in the management agreement between the council and the leisure operator.

To address these concerns, the U3A asked councillors to consider five priorities for protecting community use of the new centre:

  • Transparency: publication of the management agreement.
  • Protected access: a minimum allocation of room bookings to safeguard recurring community use.
  • Affordability: clarity on the community hire rates that groups will be expected to pay.
  • A continuing voice: an ongoing role for community organisations in decisions affecting their use of the centre.
  • Public accountability: a clear process for raising concerns if access or arrangements fall short.

These requests underline the distinction between building facilities that can accommodate community events and guaranteeing that local organisations can use them regularly and affordably.

Council says management agreement has been strengthened

Responding to the concerns, officers confirmed that the management agreement had been discussed during the private session of the council meeting.

Although the full agreement was not made public during the meeting, officers said important elements had been released and that the wording had been strengthened in relation to community access.

Officers told councillors that the management agreement states that existing community rights will not be diminished, and that its wording had been strengthened to provide further safeguards for community access to meeting rooms. The full agreement was discussed in the private session of the meeting, although some details were made public.

The U3A asked the council to publish the agreement and ensure that the arrangements would protect regular bookings, affordable hire rates and access for other community organisations.

Cllr Adem Mehmet defended the approach, saying the project had always been driven by the need to secure the best value for taxpayers’ money.

He said maintaining the centre’s community function in the heart of Tonbridge was critical to the project’s success.

“Community use has remained integral to the design throughout,” he said, explaining that the meeting rooms had been adapted to maximise flexibility and accommodate a range of events.

He added that amendments to the management agreement would safeguard the continued availability of the rooms and that oversight from the Communities and Environment Scrutiny Select Committee would continue to ensure community uses were not sidelined.

Cllr Mehmet said he believed the council had achieved the right balance between ensuring the new building’s commercial success and protecting the community activities that mattered to the town.

Councillors acknowledge the need for continued reassurance

Other councillors also addressed the tension between commercial operation and community use.

Cllr Bridge said the town-centre location was important and that protecting community access had been one of his key conditions for supporting the project.

While satisfied with the proposed location, he said the management agreement was now the main safeguard available to the council in relation to community use. He drew comparisons with village halls, which typically accommodate a variety of activities, and said the new Angel Centre needed to fulfil a similar role.

Cllr Hood said the new building would provide considerably more than the existing centre, adding that changes to the management agreement had introduced greater safeguards for community use.

Cllr Hoskins expressed hope that the community groups would gain reassurance as the new centre came into use and they could see how the arrangements worked in practice. The effectiveness of the safeguards will therefore become clearer as the centre begins operating.

What happens next?

With councillors unanimously backing the project, the new Angel Centre can now progress to construction.

The centre will be built on Sovereign Way Mid Car Park, forming part of the wider ambition to regenerate Tonbridge town centre. Construction is expected to begin in January 2027, with the new facility scheduled to open in 2028.

The existing Angel Centre will continue to operate during the construction period, meaning current activities and events are expected to continue without interruption.

In his statement following the vote, Cllr Boughton thanked the community groups, organisations, councillors, council officers and partners who had contributed to developing the plans. He also singled out Cllr Adem Mehmet for leading the project.

For the council, the decision represents a major investment in Tonbridge’s future and a commitment to replacing an ageing building with modern leisure facilities without taking on additional debt.

For community organisations, however, the next stage will be just as important: ensuring that the promised flexibility translates into rooms that can be booked regularly, at affordable rates, with meaningful safeguards against their needs being displaced by commercial activities.

The unanimous vote clears the way for the new Angel Centre to proceed to construction. Alongside the planned leisure facilities, the council’s stated commitment to community use will be tested by how the meeting rooms are made available to local organisations once the new centre opens.

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Written by Emma

Emma is the events and lifestyle editor for the Tonbridge Bean. She is passionate about coffee shop openings, getting out in nature and all things food. Particularly when any of these are Tonbridge flavoured.

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