Saddleworth Leisure Centre in Uppermill, Oldham, has undergone a £1.7m redevelopment. The centre’s 25m swimming pool has been remodelled and the centre has been substantially extended. New facilities include a 50-station fitness suite, dance studio and a reception – together with fully refurbished changing areas. The work, carried out by Cheshire-based Pozzoni, also includes the creation of two new five-a-side football pitches, which will be added to the site’s offering

A design team has been appointed to work on the multi-million pound Leeds Arena project. Leeds City Council named its strategic design partner as Jacobs - an award-winning building and technical services consultancy that is currently working on projects such as the refurbishment of The City Varieties music hall and the new headquarters of the Northern Ballet Theatre. In turn, Jacobs has appointed Populous (formerly HOK Sport Architecture) to provide

Cardiff City Football Club (CCFC) has announced that the official opening of its new multi-million pound stadium at Leckwith is to be marked by a friendly match against Glasgow Celtic Football Club on 22 July. The 27,000-seat stadium, which has been built by Laing O'Rourke at a cost of more than £50m, will replace the club's current Ninian Park ground and will also be home to the Cardiff Blues rugby

A public consultation on two redevelopment options for the Forest Hill Pools has begun in Lewisham, London, to help determine the future of the facility, which was closed in 2006. It is the second round of consultations to be held on the development, after the council was forced to re-think designs last year following the adjacent Victorian Louise House receiving a Grade II listing by English Heritage. The listing meant

Plans for the £1bn transformation of the former Ferrier Estate and neighbouring Kidbrooke area in south-east London, have been approved by Greenwich Council and will include an array of leisure facilities. As part of the Kidbrooke Vision masterplan, Thomas Tallis secondary school will be redeveloped to include a dual-use gymnastics centre, martial arts dojo, a flood lit all-weather sports pitch and a six-court sports hall, designed for county and regional

A disused cricket pavilion in Newcastle upon Tyne is set to be transformed as part of plans for a new £880,000 Sure Start Children's Centre at the Brunswick Recreation Ground. Newcastle City Council's (NCC) executive has approved plans for the new centre, which will see the pavilion's existing changing rooms replaced by new facilities that meet Sport England requirements. The construction of the centre, which is expected to get underway

Plans for the London 2012 International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and Main Press Centre (MPC) have been labelled as 'extremely weak' by the government's advisory body on urban design and architecture. The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) also suggested that the proposed designs for the media complex could 'blight' the Olympic Delivery Authority's bid to deliver a strong, lasting legacy from the Games. According to CABE's London 2012

Construction work has begun on the first of two new leisure centres that were approved as part of Gateshead Council's £29m Building an Active Future programme. The centre, which is being built in Blaydon, will feature a six-lane, 25m swimming pool, learner pool, health club, multi-use studios and outdoor sport pitches. It will also house health care facilities and will be one of the first such dual-use centres in the

Organisers of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have been praised for the 'astounding' progress being made in preparation for the event, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Delegates from the IOC travelled to the capital in order to assess the ongoing construction of new venues at the Olympic Park site on what was their fourth visit to London since the city was awarded the 2012 Games in

Kings Lynn Football Club (KLFC) is to be demoted from the Blue Square North after league officials announced that the club's home ground, The Walks, failed to meet the minimum stadium requirements. The stadium's owner, the Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, has insisted that all necessary work will be carried out in time for the start of the 2009-10 season, but the club will now be forced

Plans for a major new leisure-led development at the Elland Road stadium in Leeds, West Yorkshire, home to Leeds United Football Club (LUFC), have been given the green light by Leeds City Council (LCC). The council has passed a resolution to award full planning consent for the scheme, which will be linked to the venue's existing East Stand but does not involve increasing the stadium's 40,000-seat capacity. Designed by London-based

Delegates at the Russia-Great Britain Olympic Partnership conference, held in Moscow recently, were told that UK business and investors were in prime position to benefit from the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in 2014. Dmitry Chernyshenko, president and CEO of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, highlighted the committee's commitment to work with best-in-class partners in all aspects of 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games delivery. The conference - which coincides with

St Helens Council has approved designs produced by architects Pozzoni for a new leisure centre in Merseyside. The £3.6m project will demolish all but the existing sports hall at Queens Park Leisure Centre to make way for a completely new facility on the same site, considered by the council to be more cost-effective than a full refurbishment of the 118-year-old building. The new facility will house a five-lane, 25m swimming

Lord’s Cricket Ground in north London is on track to introduce permanent floodlighting in time for the opening ceremony of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 tournament in June. After two and a half years in the planning, the second of four telescopic floodlighting masts, which are being supplied by Nottingham-based Abacus Lighting, has now been erected. Paul Wilson, a director at Abacus, said: "If someone had said to

Adverse weather conditions and bad light at this year's Wimbledon are set to become less of an issue after it was confirmed that testing of Centre Court's new retractable roof is nearly complete. The All England Club has revealed that final testing of the 5,200sq m (55,972sq ft) roof and air-management systems at the venue are now underway ahead of a ceremony to be held on 17 May in order

Plans for the construction of a new £9.2m leisure centre in Nottingham have been given the green light by the city council, after a feasibility study ruled that the scheme presented the most cost-effective option. The decision by Nottingham City Council's (NCC) executive board now means that the historic Victoria Leisure Centre at Sneinton Market is set to be demolished to make way for the new facility, which could be

A one day international cricket match between Australia and Pakistan has marked the official opening of a new 25,000-seat, purpose-built cricket stadium at Dubai Sports City in the Middle East. The US$100m (£68.3m, 77.3m euro) venue, which has taken three years to develop, was designed by architects Gerkan, Marg and Partner (GMP), the firm behind Berlin's Olympic Stadium and the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt. Facilities at the new stadium include

Plans to establish a learning, research and innovation centre in the Olympic Park, which will form part of the London 2012 legacy, have been unveiled by London mayor Boris Johnson and the government. It is hoped that the provision of a specialist, inter-disciplinary centre of excellence at the heart of the Olympic Park will compliment the range of other facilities planned as part of the legacy for east London, including

Yorkcourt Properties has revealed plans to build a new 12,000-capacity community stadium in a bid to secure Wakefield Wildcats Rugby League Football Club's (WWRFLC) Super League status. The proposed new venue will replace the Wildcats' current Belle Vue ground, which has been the club's home since 1878 but no longer meets minimum stadium requirements that form part of the Super League's licence criteria. Plans for the new stadium, which will

Work has now started on the London 2012 International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and Main Press Centre (MPC), the last of the five main construction projects in the Olympic Park to get underway. The IBC and MPC will accommodate around 20,000 media professionals during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, broadcasting to an estimated audience of four billion people worldwide, before it is converted into 900,000sq ft (83,613sq m) of

A new £23m indoor hub for skiing and snowboarding, which has been constructed on the site of the former Hemel Ski Slope in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, is to open on 6 May. The Snow Centre, which has been built by UK-based company Sir Robert McAlpine, incorporates a 160m (525ft) main slope suitable for skiers of all abilities, a 100m (328ft) lesson slope, a Snow and Rock retail outlet, a café

Morrison Construction has been appointed to build enhanced rowing and canoe sprint facilities for the London 2012 Olympics at the Eton College Rowing School at Dorney Lake near Windsor, Berkshire. The UK-based company was selected by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to upgrade the venue in time for the Games, which currently comprise a 2,000m, eight-lane rowing lake, a return lane and associated competition facilities. A new 50m span bridge

Sheffield United Football Club (SUFC) has submitted its plans to redevelop the Bramall Lane stadium to the Sheffield City Council. The plans divide the redevelopment of the ground into two phases, with phase one comprising the extension of the Frasers Property Kop to increase its capacity by more than 3,200 seats – resulting in the overall capacity increasing to 37,000. A further planning application for phase two of the development

A new £6.44m leisure centre, which is currently being built at Forest Fields, Nottingham, has received a £1m grant from Sport England's Free Swimming Capital Modernisation Development Programme (SCMP). Nottingham City Council (NCC) is behind plans for the new complex, which will replace existing facilities at Noel Street as part of its £18.5m Leisure Centre Transformation Programme to improve sports provision across the city. The funding, which is made available

Basildon District Council has appointed Community Solutions for Leisure (CSL) as developer of the £35m Basildon Sporting Village. CSL will now finalise the design – and eventually build – the new centre and its 50m Olympic-size sized pool. The council cabinet’s decision brings to an end a 15-month procurement process. Councillor Kevin Blake, cabinet member for leisure and arts said: “The process that we have had to go through has

Plans to build a 39,000-capacity sports stadium on the site of the notorious Maze prison near Lisburn, Northern Ireland, have been dumped by the Northern Ireland Assembly. In a statement, the Northern Ireland first minister Peter Robinson said that although the redevelopment options for the site will be studied further, all plans to build a multi-sport stadium "will not be taken forward". The stadium, which was designed by HOK Sport

The £30m refurbishment of the 2009 Open Championship venue Turnberry golf resort in Ayrshire, Scotland, is underway. The project, designed by Mary Fox Linton in consultation with Historic Scotland, is led by Dubai-based Leisurecorp – which recently bought the site's 113-room hotel and golf course. Half of the 1906 hotel will be refurbished during the first phase of the project and public spaces are being renovated back to their original