£84,000 funding boost for leisure project

A further £84,000 of funding has been secured towards improvements at Cradley Heath's Haden Hill Leisure Centre.

The money will boost the £687,000 already being spent on refurbishing the changing rooms of the Barrs Road facility.

The added government funding has been secured by Sandwell Leisure Trust through the Free Swimming Capital Modernisation Programme.

It will provide a new main entrance and reception area. Neil Duggan, funding development manager for the leisure trust, said: "The proposed modernisation will relocate the main entrance and convert the ageing and unwelcoming reception to an open plan, modern reception environment.

"This will also help meet the needs of the local community with scope to handle the increased numbers of customers generated from successful activities like the current free swimming initiative.

"The development will have a number of clear functional benefits including helping customers to be served more efficiently and effectively and improved access for disabled people.

"We are thoroughly delighted to be able to make these improvements to this very popular leisure facility."

Work is expected to start in November and it is hoped there will be minimal disruption to users of Haden Hill Leisure Centre.

It has already started to transform the outdated changing facilities into a state-of-the-art 'changing village' for its pools.

It has been funded by Sport England and Sandwell Leisure Trust and is made up of a £385,000 grant from Sport England and a combined match funding contribution of £302,000 from the council and leisure trust.

It is hoped that the work, which is being carried out by GF Tomlinson (Birmingham) Ltd, will be completed by the end of this year.