Assurances that Fairfield Halls IS on track to open to the public next year have been made by council leader Tony Newman.

The venue in Park Lane, Croydon, has been closed since July 2016 and is undergoing a £30 million makeover.

It was originally expected to open this month, but in April it was announced it would not be ready until March 2019.

A meeting of the council’s Scrutiny and Overview Committee on Tuesday (July 10) opened with a presentation from Cllr Newman.

“Perhaps the biggest project that the council is responsible for is Fairfield Halls, that is on track to open early next year,” he said.

“That is going to be a fabulous project, a £30 million refit and I understand we’re going to be hearing in the very near future about what type of acts we are going to be having at the Fairfield.

“Last time I was here people were still occasionally saying ‘is it really going to open again?’

“It’s going to be fabulous, it’s going to be something the whole town can be proud of and something that hopefully the whole of South London will be using.”

During a ‘leader’s question time’, Cllr Andy Stranack asked whether there was anything that could be done to keep projects on time.

“I wonder whether you agree that one of the key  challenges has been capital programme slippage in the last four years,” he said.

“Looking forward, how can we make sure projects arrive on time?”

But Cllr Newman said the key was being ‘open and honest’ about delays.

He said: “I wouldn’t agree that it is one of the key challenges but clearly you’d always want to keep to a schedule.

“With the Fairfield, my understanding is that the more they literally dug into it some of it was more complicated than it might’ve been.

“That reinforced the decision we took to go for a full closure to enable us to respond.

“Yes, we’d always want things to be on time but we want to be open and honest.

“What I don’t want to be doing is setting artificially long times so we can keep things on time.

“I think we should be honest and open with people about why there is a delay if there is a delay.”