Wanstead Leisure Centre: 477 Sign as Pool Loses End Date

A petition demanding that Redbridge Council finish the Wanstead High School and leisure centre building works has collected 477 signatures in nine days.

It opened on the council’s own e-petitions register on 18 August. By 27 August it had more signatures than every other live petition in the borough put together, and more than all seven paper petitions the council received in 2026 combined.

The two things it asks for are modest. Organisers want the council to attend a public meeting to explain where the project stands, and to prioritise finishing it. What they say they cannot get is a date.

What the council itself has published

The petition’s central claim is that there is no end date. The council’s own published record supports that, and it is worth reading in order.

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In November 2024, the council reported that construction was “moving full steam ahead”. Cllr Kam Rai, the Leader of Redbridge Council, was quoted after a site visit: “My recent visit shows construction is moving full steam ahead, and we’re making considerable progress in delivering a brand-new swimming pool.” That release gave a completion date of the end of 2025.

On 9 May 2025 the council went further, saying “Construction is on track for completion in late 2025”. That release put the cost of the scheme at £16m.

Late 2025 came and went.

The contractor went into administration in February

On 17 February 2026, administrators were appointed to Jerram Falkus Construction Limited, company number 00820289, the main contractor on the job. The appointment was made by administrators from FRP Advisory Trading Limited and published in The Gazette on 20 February.

Two days after the appointment, on 19 February 2026, the council confirmed it publicly. Its statement said Jerram Falkus “has entered administration”, that the council had “taken formal possession of the site from the Administrator”, and that it had deployed additional security. On what happens next, it said only this: “Work to appoint a new contractor has begun so the final stage of the project can move forward with minimal disruption.”

That release gave no timescale and no cost.

Six months later, the council has not said what happened next

We could find no council statement since 19 February confirming that a new contractor has been appointed.

• The council’s news page carries no update on the project.
• The Leader’s weekly update of Friday 21 August 2026 runs to six topics, including water supply, community grants and a food hub. It does not mention Wanstead High School, the leisure centre or the pool.
• The council’s own project page for the scheme sits on Let’s Talk Redbridge and requires an account to read. A resident who is not signed in gets a login form, not an update.

What the council does still publish is a description of the scheme, on its Investing in Redbridge page. That page calls it a £20m development and says it is “entering its final stages”. It gives no completion date.

The cost the council publishes has therefore risen from £16m in May 2025 to £20m now. The completion date has gone the other way, from “late 2025” to nothing at all.

What the scheme is meant to deliver

The building is shared between the school and the public leisure centre, which is why a construction delay hits two sets of users. According to the council’s own descriptions, it includes:

• a new 25-metre swimming pool
• dance studios, a new reception area and accessible changing rooms
• new classrooms for Wanstead High School
• a new dining space and specialist art studios for the school

Wanstead High School is on Redbridge Lane West, E11, about two miles west of Ilford town centre. The leisure centre shares the site.

What the petition says

The petition is a campaign document, not a council record, so its claims are the organisers’ own. It sets them out plainly:

• that the project has been “marred by a decade of delays”
• that for over six years lessons have been disrupted by noise and dust, communal space has been reduced, one-way systems have lengthened pupils’ journeys between lessons, and lunch breaks have been staggered
• that public examinations have been disrupted
• that the cost of renting temporary classrooms is “draining financial resources”
• that “there is currently no contractor for the pool and leisure centre part of the project, and no timeline or end date”

We have not been able to verify the six-year and decade figures against a council document, and we are not presenting them as fact. The part we can check, that the council has published no end date, holds.

We also could not confirm the current opening status of the existing Wanstead Leisure Centre. Its operator’s website was unreachable when we checked on 27 August, returning an automated challenge rather than a page.

The scale of it, in context

Redbridge petitions rarely get past a couple of dozen signatures. Set against the rest of the register, this one is an outlier:

The seven other live petitions have 56 signatures between them. Six of them are about parking or traffic, which is the norm in Redbridge: every one of the seven petitions the council formally received in 2026 was about parking, loading or road safety.

The one recent campaign that beats it was also about a building for children. Save Redbridge Music School, which opposed moving the music school out of the John Savage Centre, closed on 11 August with 721 signatures. Both sit on the same register, and both came from parents.

What it means for you

• You can still sign. The petition runs until 18 February 2027 on the council’s e-petitions register. You need to register with the system, and you will be asked for a name, postcode and email address.
• Signing is not the same as forcing a debate. Redbridge’s published petition scheme sets out how petitions are handled, but it names no signature threshold that triggers a council debate. When a petition closes it is passed to an officer, and the organiser gets an acknowledgement within 14 days.
• The response gets published. Redbridge puts the officer reply for each petition, with dates, on its petition schedule. That is where the answer to this one will appear.
• If you use the leisure centre, check with the operator before travelling. We could not reach its website to confirm what is open.
• If your child is at the school, the petition’s first ask is a public meeting. There is no date for one.

We have asked nothing of the council for this report and quoted nothing that is not already published. If Redbridge appoints a contractor or names a completion date, we will update this page.

Sources

• Redbridge Council e-petitions register for the petition text, the 477 signature count, the 18 August 2026 start, the 18 February 2027 deadline and every other live petition’s count, checked 27 August 2026.
• Council update: Wanstead Leisure Centre Redevelopment, 19 February 2026, for the administration, the formal possession of the site and the appointment of a new contractor.
• The Gazette, notice 5059662, published 20 February 2026, for the appointment of administrators to Jerram Falkus Construction Limited, company number 00820289, on 17 February 2026.
• Wanstead Leisure Centre one step closer to completion, 9 May 2025, for the £16m figure and “on track for completion in late 2025”.
• Construction of Wanstead Leisure Centre is moving full steam ahead, 21 November 2024, for the Leader’s quote and the end-of-2025 date.
• Investing in Redbridge for the £20m figure, the facilities list and “entering its final stages”, checked 27 August 2026.
• Leader’s update, Friday 21 August 2026, checked for any mention of the project.
• Redbridge petition scheme and the 2026 petition schedule for how petitions are handled and answered.