A facility that promises to improve both cultural- and bio-diversity opens in Coventry next month (October).

The £8m Alan Higgs Centre aims to provide affordable sport and leisure facilities in the south-east of the city.

The wards surrounding the centre – Stoke, Binley and Willenhall – are among the most deprived in the country and suffer from a lack of affordable and accessible health and fitness facilities.

Developed and funded by the Alan Higgs Trust, the centre will include a 65-station fitness suite equipped by Pulse, a health suite with a steamroom and sauna and a therapy suite offering a range of recognised complementary therapies.

Other facilities include a children’s play area and crèche, a sports hall and a bar and catering facilities.

The sports hall will also be used for performing arts and plans are being made with both Warwick Arts Centre and the Belgrade Theatre for them to promote events at the centre.

Outside there are five grass football pitches, a full-size floodlit synthetic football pitch, netball courts and a skatepark. There are also plans for a climbing wall.

Around 400,000 people are expected to use the centre each year, which will be home to Coventy City Football Club’s Academy and Football in the Community scheme.

Coventry Sports Foundation has been appointed to manage the centre. The company already manages the Midland Sports Centre and Centre AT7 in Coventry.

Set in 45 acres of land leased to the charity by Coventry City Council for 150 years, the centre has been built in harmony with its surrounding area.

Environmentally-friendly materials have been used in its construction and rainwater collected from the roof is being channelled 200m away to rehydrate a marsh area which is in danger of drying out.

The charity has worked closely with the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and environmental consultants Middlemarch Environmental to put together a strategy to manage the habitat, which includes hedge laying and a major tree-planting exercise.