New £22.6m leisure centre in Northumberland town set to open in October

Work is well underway on the new swimming pools, spa and fitness suite, café, indoor bowling area and sensory room ahead of their expected opening in October.

This part of the development will feature a five-lane, 25m swimming pool, a learner pool with an adjustable floor and a leisure area which includes race slides.

Now that the tiling of the main pool is complete the next stage will involve the testing of all the equipment to check that all the filters, plant equipment and the height adjustable floor are all working as they should.Work is also progressing on the spa facilities which include a sauna, steam room, salt room and spa pool.

Meanwhile, the three fitness studios and a gym area are also being constructed. One of the studios will be a dedicated spinning studio while the other two will be used for fitness classes, yoga and Pilates.

The existing Swan Centre for Leisure on the same site remains open while work progresses.

Cllr Jeff Watson, cabinet member with responsibility for healthy lives at Northumberland County Council, said: “This amazing centre is really starting to come to life and we can see what a top-quality sport and leisure environment it will provide for Berwick and its surrounding communities.

“Despite the challenges and restrictions caused by Covid, the team at Tolent Construction, are making amazing progress on the centre.

“Naturally there is a lot of work going on at the site and we would like to reassure the public that the existing sports centre is and will remain open for business as usual throughout the construction process.”

The second phase of the work will include the sports hall and car parking area and this is expected to be complete by summer 2022.

A new full sized 3G pitch has also been built next to the centre and is already proving very popular. The pitch is now home to several of the town’s junior and senior football teams including Berwick Juniors, Highfields and the over 35-year-old's teams. A new league has also been set up on Mondays with up to 16 teams playing over the course of the evening.

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