Work begins on £24m community leisure, health and wellbeing hub

WORK gets underway this month to replace Sharley Park Leisure Centre in Clay Cross with a new community hub including leisure and health services in a project led by Alliance Leisure.

The £24.1m scheme forms a key part of North East Derbyshire District Council’s Clay Cross Town Investment Plan, which aims to deliver a number of projects to ensure Clay Cross is a thriving place to live and work.

Designed by GT3 Architects, the new Clay Cross Active hub will deliver fit-forpurpose activity, health and support services in one site for the 20,000 residents of town and the surrounding area.

It aims to provide a space where the public can be active, both physically and mentally, which offers opportunities to learn and develop and a site to improve health and wellbeing and social interaction.

The development will be coordinated by Alliance Leisure through the UK Leisure Framework, which is managed by Denbighshire Leisure, with ISG acting as principle build contractor.

Julia Goddard, senior business development manager at Alliance Leisure, said: “Through Clay Cross Active, North East Derbyshire District Council is demonstrating how public sector leisure can provide integrated services that meet the social, health and wellbeing needs of the whole community to ensure a successful and sustainable future for public leisure provision.”

Built on land next to the existing 1970s built Sharley Park Leisure Centre, the low carbon centre will feature solar PVs and air source heat pumps.

Facilities will include a 100-station gym, group cycling studio, four court sports hall as well as a 25m swimming pool with six lanes, plus a learner pool with spectator seating. Designed with accessibility in mind, the changing village will include a Changing Places facility.

A wellness suite installed with Innerva power-assisted equipment arranged in a 12-station circuit will cater for people of all fitness levels, particularly those who are less mobile, suffering from illness, or who are undergoing post-operative rehabilitation.

Other facilities will include soft play, a

TAGactive indoor adventure play area, treatment rooms, a multi-purpose room for community activities and a café with a viewing gallery for the swimming pool.

Outside, the large park will be reinvigorated with social areas, improved play equipment, a full size 3G floodlit pitch plus a walking/cycle route around the park’s one mile perimeter.

Medical services will be delivered from the new hub, while organisations such as Citizens Advice will also operate from the centre.

Craig Johnson, project manager from ISG, added: “This will be a new facility for the local community that will be unrivalled within the area.

“The setting for the centre is ideal to offer a wider external appreciation for sports in addition to the state-of-the-art facilities that the centre will offer.

“The journey began with our preconstruction team and Alliance and will finish with a first-class facility delivered by project manager Sean Smithson and his team.

“We look forward to the day when members of the public can use the facility and enjoy everything that our team has worked so hard to create.”

The development is expected to complete in winter 2024 when Sharley Park Leisure Centre will then be demolished.