The dramatic transformation of changing rooms at Bridgnorth’s main sports and leisure facility has finally been completed.
The refurbishment project at the Bridgnorth Endowed Leisure Centre, costing more than £600,000, was originally planned to take four months but was extended by 10 months when major structural defects were uncovered, leading to the swimming pool being closed for repairs and the budget doubling in size.
A range of community organisations, including Bridgnorth Town Council, the Rotary Club and Northgate Swimming Club, stepped in to provide additional financial help to the school cover the cost of work such as steel pillar repairs and asbestos removal.
Bridgnorth-based architects, Johnson Design Partnership, have designed and overseen the scheme for leisure centre owners Bridgnorth Endowed School.
“The old changing facilities were in a bad state and people were reluctant to use the pool because of them,” said Matt Spinks, a director of Johnson Design Partnership.
“We re-designed the area to provide 20 larger, more comfortable, unisex private changing rooms in an open plan style, including parent and child, family and disabled cubicles.
“There are also two group rooms for school changing, along with a dedicated disabled/baby changing room with shower. The male and female toilets have been refurbished and there are now six individual shower cubicles with four pre-swim showers.
“The new flooring has high performance anti-slip tiles and all the lighting and ceiling has been replaced. It has all been fully decorated in the corporate colours of the centre’s management company Halo and is looking fantastic. We are delighted with the results and the whole scheme will improve customer experience dramatically and increase use of the centre,” Matt said.
The refurbishment has included the installation of five vision panels through to the pool, a new pram and wheelchair storage and a bench at the entrance to remove outside shoes.
The open plan design has followed criteria set down by Sport England, who provided the majority of funding for the work.