Work begins on Leigh Indoor Sports Centre

Construction work has begun on the £6.4m Leigh Indoor Sports Centre in Wigan.

Funded by the Greenbank Partnership, Wigan Council and the Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust, the publicly-owned and operated site is due to open in June.

Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust will manage the site, which will offer a Profiles gym with 65 stations, a fitness studio with capacity for 40 people, a six-lane pool with spectator seating and room for 150 competitors as well as a multi-use sports hall.

Mike Woodruff, the centre’s manager, said: “It is really rewarding for everyone involved to see the progress being made on site.

“We want the people of Leigh to see that this is becoming a reality and they will have a sports facility that they can all be proud of and most importantly all make use of.”

The centre is the first stage of the £83m Leigh Sports Village development, which represents the biggest investment in public sports, recreational and educational facilities in the Wigan borough for decades.

Other facilities in the mixed-use centre will include a 10,000-seat stadium, a 400m running track with club house, floodlit grass and artificial pitches, a 150-room hotel, a cinema, restaurants, bars and a bowling alley.

The Sports Village is due to open to the public in 2008 and ill also house the new Leigh Sixth Form College building.