Churchill Sports Centre in North Somerset is undergoing a massive £900,000 redevelopment.

The leisure centre, a dual use site with Churchill Community School, is managed by leisure trust and social enterprise Tone, which is investing more than £100,000 towards the work, whilst North Somerset Council will provide the further £800,000.

The redevelopment, carried out by leisure development partner Createability and project managed by Alliance Leisure, will include a 35-station gym, two studios and a dry changing area. The reception area will be remodeled to create separate entrances for the school and local community use and a lift will be installed to comply with the DDA regulations. The council is also installing a £300,000 all-weather pitch as part of its £800,000 investment in the facility.

The project was made more complicated by recent changes to environmental building regulations, according to Ian Cotgrave, Managing Director of Createability. He explains: "Due to a shared school and leisure centre power source, the overall permitted supply to the site was insufficient and so we had to look at how the current building could be made more energy efficient, before permission to build could even be granted." More than £25,000 is now being spent to upgrade the existing lighting systems to LED, so that the energy saved by this can be used to supply the development. Joel Chapman, Tone's Commercial Director said: "Our remit as a social enterprise is to improve services for the local community as well as being environmentally aware, so energy efficiency was a high priority. Createability worked with us to discuss the most time and cost efficient way forward and we are confident the right solution was chosen. The alternative would have been a full mains upgrade that would have delayed the project by three - six months and tripled the costs to more than £75,000."

Cllr Felicity Baker, North Somerset Council's executive member for leisure services, said: "This is an important investment by both the council and Tone Leisure. The planned works will improve what the centre has to offer which will help attract more users to the complex from a wider area." The project is expected to finish at the beginning of September, in time for the new school year.