More than £2million has been spent on Kenilworth's new leisure projects so far, the chief executive of Warwick District Council has revealed.

In a letter to Kenilworth Town Council, Chris Elliot said the figure covered the design and planning of the Castle Farm and Abbey Fields redevelopments up to the contract signing stage.

Mr Elliot also said that with work already underway at Castle Farm, contracts for Abbey Fields were "very close to signature and an announcement from WDC can be expected very soon".

His letter was prompted by a request from the town council for assurances that its district colleagues continued to consider whether the new sports centres provided value for money.

In his response the council boss said WDC was no longer looking into other options, saying it had taken a "very thorough appraisal" of all possible locations before the plans were approved.

"The council confirms that the current development sites do provide the best value for residents of Kenilworth and Warwick district with regards cost, the environment and accessibility," his letter said.

It added: "WDC has already spent over £2million on the design, development and planning of these projects as far as the signing of the contracts. All of this expenditure would be lost on a new site."

He also said that the inflation, and the rising costs of materials would hugely increase the cost of the projects were they to be delayed even further. 

"Any project on a new site would involve at least two to three years work from this point, leading to an increase in price of at least 14.6 per cent to 21.9 per cent," he added. 

"On top of this, experience on the ground suggests that costs of material and labour are proving highly volatile at this time and the cost increases over time are proving very hard to predict."

Discussion over finding a new site for the town's new leisure centres had been reignited by local campaigner Clive Peacock who called on the town council to show "real vision" and consider using developing the Woodside Hotel.

Mr Elliot said that purchasing the Glasshouse Lane hotel would add a lot of extra costs to the project.

And he said the sports facilities being built at the new Kenilworth School would provide options for the new houses being built on the east side of the town.

Speaking at last week's Kenilworth Town Council meeting Cllr Michael Coker said there was "nothing surprising" about the chief executive's response.

"I indicated at the time that Mr Peacock's suggestion was not practical or feasible and the likely cost would be over 50 per cent of what it is now," he said. 

"And that would have taken it into the region of nearly twice what was spent on Warwick and Leamington."