John Wright Sports Centre is a thriving activities hub in the heart of East Kilbride, run by South Lanarkshire Leisure on behalf of the council.

It attracts more than 300,000 mainly local users annually to its range of dry facilities, which include main games hall and smaller activities hall, The Club fitness centre housing cardiovascular and resistance equipment and Shokk Gym targeting under-15s fitness.

"Many disabled groups use the centre," reports Facility Manager Alan Mockus, "as well as families, who come here for pre-school activity classes and the crèche. Our exercise classes are also extremely popular with all age ranges, including the 50+ and 60+ groups."

Built in 1972, the centre was at the vanguard of Britain's new wave of sport and leisure provision as hundreds of wet and dry centres sprang up under national initiatives to boost participation levels.

The strategy certainly worked at Alan Wright and the centre has arguably proved to be the victim of its own success, as Mockus explains. "Our changing provision had become a mess. It simply couldn't cope with the sheer weight of numbers passing through every day. The air conditioning wasn't up to the job and that created conditions for black mould to grow on the walls and ceilings and in the showers and toilets."

Although Mockus admits that the existing metal lockers "were not all that bad", taken together, the problems in the changing areas had built up to breaking point. "First impressions are so important in retaining customers," he says, "and changing is one of the most crucial aspects of provision because it is the first thing they see when they come in and the last thing they see when they leave, so high standards are vital. "Local authority centres must be able to compete with the private sector if they are to survive and we knew that ours was not up to scratch. That was when we decided that nothing less than a total makeover of the changing areas would do."

In fact, the plan was to work on one of the two male areas and the female Mockus had read about the competition to win funding for new locker facilities and thought that the prizes on offer were just what the centre would require under the revamp planned. He entered and the centre won third prize after what the judges revealed was a hotly contested race for the top spot.

The refurbishment began last November as everything in the two mens areas - lockers, lighting, showers and toilets - was stripped out to leave "just a shell". The centre's third (female) changing room was excluded from the makeover. "It was the best of the three," says Mockus, "so we focused on transforming the other two, where the outbreak of mould was worst."

Once the main contractor had completed their refit, Craftsman Quality Lockers installed a double tier of lockers in both areas, in light oak finish. In the mens changing room went in ten Maximiser lockers, spacious enough to hang suits, jackets and to store other belongings and 20 smaller, holdall size lockers for bags and valuables. In the female, 12 Maximiser and 24 holdall lockers.

Also installed was a separate disabled changing area featuring shower, toilet and CQL Equalizer locker - won as part of the centre's prize - that allows wheelchair users to change comfortably and conveniently using a locker designed to function at a height that suits them.

"The difference between the old and the new is like chalk and cheese," Mockus enthuses. "Now, customers can change in pleasant surroundings that resemble more the facilities you'd expect to find in a golf club - with sporting prints hung on the walls - rather than a sports centre and that goes a long way to delivering customer satisfaction.

"We've had nothing but positive feedback since the new changing area opened at Easter. In fact, in hindsight, people are surprised how they had soldiered on for so long with the old facilities."