After two years of construction, a multi-million pound leisure centre is preparing to open its doors for the first time later this month. Over the next two weeks, the final touches will be added to Bingham Arena Leisure Centre ahead of its launch on Monday, February 20.
The £13m site run by Lex Leisure is located on Chapel Lane, Bingham, and will offer a range of facilities to the community. One of the main features of the leisure centre is the swimming area, which features a 23m by 25m pool that reaches 2m in depth, as well as a 7m by 13m learners pool and enough space for 330 spectators.
Due to the large viewing capacity, the leisure centre will be one of the first locations locally that can hold large swimming competitions and events. This will also allow new opportunities for the area, such as swim instructors who are qualified to teach to a Swim England standard.
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The leisure centre has been built close to the vast Romans' Quarter development. Plans were announced earlier this month for a further 263 homes to be built on the site, which will eventually be home to more than 1,000 properties.
Leader of Rushcliffe Borough Council, Councillor Simon Robinson, said: “I’m absolutely delighted to see the progress we’ve made with this wonderful new facility for the people of Bingham and Rushcliffe at a time new investment in our growing communities is so important. The Bingham community will benefit from this new site and with a prominent location right by the A46, it can be accessed by those further afield too.
“This site has something for everybody from swimming to gym to a fitness suite and other exercise and then there’s Bingham Jubilee Community Hall also providing a great space for events and will be available to book soon. The six-lane swimming pool features really good spectator seating for galas and competitions, I think it looks terrific and will attract a lot of talented athletes to practise and compete here."
In addition to the swimming facilities, the new 5500 sq m leisure centre has two exercise studios, a dedicated spin studio, and a fitness centre, which is an 80 station gym. One of the pieces of equipment the gym is most proud to offer is a Boditrax machine, which customers will be able to use for free.
The machine is able to measure your heart rate, body weight, metabolic average age, water content, and bone mass, and can also be used in conjunction with a mobile app so users can track their progress.
A cafe has also been created next to the reception area, and this cafe can be enjoyed by everyone, not just customers of the leisure centre. The facility is also home to the new Bingham Jubilee Community Hall which can host a range of events for audiences of up to 300 people, such as conferences, weddings, parties, and other community events.
In addition to the leisure centre Bingham Enterprise Centre has also been built on the site, which includes 12 new office spaces. The council found that there was a big demand for businesses who wanted to stay in Bingham, and so created the space to help "retain local talent."
The site has also been designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible, with sensor lighting, sourced heat pumps and solar panels on the office building. Councillor Robinson said: "These buildings are a real flagship for green technologies too and we’ve invested in a carbon clever and energy-efficient site.
"We’re proud the building has 78% lower carbon emission rates than other leisure sites locally." The building also has a rainwater harvester which collects all of the rain in a big unit, which can then be used to flush the toilets.
Current memberships and bookings at the Toot Hill site will transfer over to Bingham Arena Leisure Centre and the current Bingham Leisure Centre at Toot Hill School will close. However, facilities will remain available for outdoor sports including hockey, tennis, and athletics, and sports hall activities outside of school hours, which will also be managed by Lex Leisure.
Glen Hall, Parkwood Leisure’s Managing Director, said: “The new Bingham Arena is a fantastic addition to the Borough’s leisure facilities, and further enhances the leisure, health and fitness provision for the community of Bingham and the surrounding area. It’s also a great showcase for what can be done to improve the energy efficiency of leisure facilities, which is something that we’re working hard to do across all our sites.”
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