A councillor has called for more details on how the council plans to monitor the risks of the King Alfred Leisure Centre project, given international uncertainties and high levels of public interest.
The King Alfred was included on Brighton and Hove City Council’s annual internal audit plan for 2026-27 in an update on areas that officials believe could pose a risk to the authority.
Labour councillor Liz Loughran asked for more detail about what the internal audit process would look like for the leisure centre scheme in the current financial year.
She wanted to know more about the assurances given by auditors as preparatory work gets under way on the plans for the King Alfred site on Hove seafront.
And she wanted to know whether the process was operating as expected and if risk was being managed appropriately.
Councillor Loughran said: “We agree it should be added to the (internal audit) plan and we note that the risk category is high and that there will be a high level of scrutiny.
“There is already a very high level of public interest, as you’ll be aware.”
At the meeting of the council’s Audit and Standards Committee on Tuesday 21 April, she asked that the committee be given more information about the scope of the audit and key aspects such as the tender process.
She added: “We’re in a climate where all our costs are being affected by what’s happening internationally.
“We’ve got rising energy costs. We’ve got uncertainty around inflation and so on. (It) could affect that project in particular.”
Council audit manager Carolyn Sheehan said that the information placed before councillors so far was brief but officials would develop their audit strategy as the project progressed.
She said: “We generally do a programme assurance audit. We’ve got a ‘bog standard’ one that we would do for any major programme across the council.
“But obviously we do need to look into the specifics of that capital programme (for the King Alfred) to understand what are the risks that are critical to that.”
Councillor Loughran’s request came in the same week when cabinet members approved the next stage of funding for the King Alfred project.
The money is due to cover the cost of site preparation work where planning permission has already been granted such as the demolition of the old ten-pin bowling alley.
The plans for a new swimming pool and leisure centre were published in March and have been the subject of a public consultation.
