Dudley Council’s leader brushed off concerns that developers will go cold on plans for a new ice rink in the town centre.

At a meeting of Dudley Council’s cabinet, Cllr Patrick Harley said the new attraction would be a ‘game changer’ for redevelopment in Dudley and he was confident the scheme would become a reality.

Cllr Harley was responding to a comment from Labour finance spokesperson, Cllr Shaukat Ali, who sounded a note of caution after a report on the development was presented to the meeting.

Cllr Ali said: “I welcome this report in terms of the ice rink, if it were to happen it will truly breathe new life into the town.

“However I would have appreciated a bit more detail, some big projects in Dudley have not materialised for far.”

Cllr Ali highlighted plans for the Cavendish House site in the town centre which was demolished in 2020 after years of delays but a proposed housing and retail redevelopment of the site is yet to get under way.

Cllr Ali added: “We have all seen the twists and turns that has taken.”

Cllr Harley said: “The land won’t be handed over until the ice rink is built, that is our guarantee it will happen – it will be built.

“We came up with a proposal which has morphed into the ice rink – it has been painstakingly slow. The figures show it will be an asset to our town.

“The developers want to deliver a quality venue, this is that game changer that Dudley has been crying out for.

“They are putting their own funding into this, that shows the confidence the developer and ice rink operator has.”

Also at the meeting on July 15, Cllr Cathryn Bayton was worried the ice rink’s climate change assessment was missing from the report.

Cllr Bayton said: “I am incredibly concerned that for a proposal for an ice rink the size of this one that we don’t have that in the report.

“Ice rinks are very resource heavy in terms of electricity and whilst we may get the detail at the business case stage, I am concerned we are removing that requirement from the developer.”

The council’s deputy leader, Cllr Paul Bradley, agreed and said he would see if the assessment could be reinstated.

Cllr Parmjit Sahota wondered if the project was being given too much attention by the authority and other opportunities were being overlooked.

He said: “Are we putting all our eggs in one basket? We don’t want the ice rink to go cold and we are left with nothing else.”

Cllr Harley pointed out that ice rinks are supposed to be cold and added: “It won’t go cold, we have progressed so far now with the ice rink operator I believe this is going to happen.

“We are making a commitment with a piece of land that is our contribution, I believe we have commitment from Planet Ice

“They could have taken this to Birmingham or Wolverhampton, they could have put it anywhere in the West Midlands or the Black Country but they chose Dudley.”