Village Hotels is to open its Village South Leeds hotel in Tingley, Yorkshire, this September as part of its £60m investment strategy. The £20m property is currently under construction and is the second of the company's UK properties to be developed using a new, modern design blueprint. Speaking about the development's progress, Village CEO Gary Davis said: "Work is now well under way to ensure this magnificent new hotel becomes

Three historic attractions have received a major funding boost after the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) confirmed over £16m of grants. The announcement was made as part of a £23m package pledged by the HLF for the repair and restoration of historic landmark buildings across Britain. Watts Gallery, home to the works of Victorian painter and sculptor, GF Watts, will receive £4.3m of HLF cash to put towards a £10m renovation

Work on the £4m refurbishment of William Penn Leisure Centre in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, has been delayed due to a dispute between the client - Three Rivers District Council - and Gee Construction. The aim of the project, which began in March 2007, is to expand and revamp aging facilities to cater for rising visitor numbers. The improvements to the centre were expected to be completed by summer 2008, but the

Quintain Estates and Development (QED), the firm behind the new Wembley City urban regeneration scheme, has forced several publications to withdraw stories that speculate the firm has stopped working on its regeneration masterplan. Nick Shattock, deputy chief executive of QED, told Leisure Opportunities "The scheme is entirely on course," and that a two-week pause was necessary to review the design work on the emerging phase II masterplan, to accommodate a

Spanish health club chain Metropolitan has opened a new 4m euro (US$6.3, £3.2m) sports, health and wellness centre in the city of Vigo in the Spanish region of Galicia. Located on the top floor of the new A Laxe Shopping Centre, facilities at the 2,000sq m (21,528sq ft) club include a 500sq m (5,382sq ft) fitness suite equipped by Life Fitness, a swimming pool and a spa area offering a

Leisure trust Tone Leisure has appointed Alliance Leisure to fund and project manage the redevelopment of three of its managed sites. The regeneration work will see facilities improved at the Wellington Sports Centre in Wellington and the Wellsprings Leisure Centre and Blackbrook Pavilion in Taunton. All three sites are expected to reopen to the public later this year. Wellington Sports Centre will be the first project to finish at the

The Art House, a £3m centre for visual artists in Wakefield, Yorkshire, will be formally opened by culture secretary Andy Burnham on Monday 7 July. The centre's aim is to support the artists from across the UK by offering them studios, technical support, workspaces and accommodation for short-term residencies. Liz Whitehouse, Director of The Art House, says: “It has taken 14 years of dedicated hard work to make this centre

Plans for Liverpool Football Club’s new 60,000-seat stadium in Stanley Park have finally got the go-ahead following five-years in the planning. The £350m development, which includes other sports facilities, is expected to open in time for the 2011-2012 season. Lang O’Rourke has been appointed as the development’s engineers and has already begun to prepare the site for construction, which is due to begin this September. The stadium is designed by

Plans to build a £25m rugby stadium in St Helens, Merseyside, is due to receive approval from the Government Office for the North West this month following unanimous support from the St Helens Council Planning Committee. Langtree, the project’s developer and the site’s owner, proposes to construct an 18,000-capacity stadium with mixed seating and standing facilities, to replace the existing home for the St Helens Rugby League Club as part

Broxbournebury Mansion in Hertfordshire could be converted into a luxury hotel. The privately owned building is the subject of a revised planning application, already approved by Broxbourne Borough Council, which has now been forwarded to the office of the deputy Prime Minister for consideration. If successful, the property will undergo a £16m conservation and restoration project. The 37,000 sq ft, 16th century, Grade II-listed mansion is located on a Jack

The proposed Peak Resort development in Unstone, Derbyshire, has finally been given the go-ahead by Chesterfield Borough Council after 19 years in the planning. The project, estimated to cost around £300m to complete, is headed by Birchall Properties and is to be located within 121-hectares (300-acres) of green belt land adjacent to the River Drone. The development’s centerpiece will be a 312-metre domed structure, housing a 26-room hotel with spa

X Leisure, owner of Fountain Park leisure and retail complex in Edinburgh, has been granted planning permission for a new budget hotel with three restaurants by the city council. The development, designed by architects SMC Hugh Martin Partnership, will consist of a 2,545 sq m, four-storey, 181-room, budget hotel with three family restaurants on the ground floor. The hotel will join the existing 13-screen Cineworld cinema, casino, restaurants and Mecca

X Leisure, owner of Fountain Park leisure and retail complex in Edinburgh, has been granted planning permission for a new budget hotel with three restaurants by the city council. The development, designed by architects SMC Hugh Martin Partnership, will consist of a 2,545 sq m, four-storey, 181-room, budget hotel with three family restaurants on the ground floor. The hotel will join the existing 13-screen Cineworld cinema, casino, restaurants and Mecca

Israeli shipping magnate Sammy Ofer has donated £3.3m towards the restoration of the London, UK-based tea clipper Cutty Sark, devastated in a fire in May 2007. It is the second major donation made this year by Ofer. In April, Ofer gave £20m to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich for the creation of a major new wing. Cutty Sark, considered one of London's iconic visitor attractions, was undergoing a £35m

Plans to build a museum of Middle Eastern modern art in Dubai have been revealed by Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. Designed by Amsterdam, Netherlands-based architects UNStudio, the museum will be located within the proposed Culture Village in the city-state's Jadaf district. The UAD50bn (£6.91bn, US$13.6bn, 8.7bn euro) project will include a large centrepiece museum, an amphitheatre, an exhibition hall and smaller museums displaying local

New £4bn plans for Battersea Power Station in London have been revealed. The disused, Grade II-listed building has been the subject of redevelopment schemes since 1984, but none of the plans have come to fruition. Now, details of yet another new project – the brainchild of Irish group Treasury Holdings, which bought the site in 2006 for 595m euro (then £400m) – have been announced. Real Estate Opportunities (REO) –

Construction has begun on the new £3.8m sports hall at Sportspark, the swimming and sports centre based at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich. The new building – to be built in addition to the existing three-hall Barclays arena – will feature eight badminton courts, four basketball courts and four volleyball courts, as well as two lecture rooms for use by UEA, which is funding the project. The

Public voting for the National Lottery Awards, an annual search to find the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects, is now open until 4 July. The awards are split into seven categories – arts, education, environment, health, heritage, sports and charity – and each category features 10 projects. The three projects that receive the most votes, either online or by telephone, will progress through to the final round of voting, which will

Portsmouth Football Club and developers Sellar Property Group have unveiled new designs for a proposed 36,000-seater stadium on Horsea Island. The announcement comes after plans for a stadium on another site, The Hard, were scrapped in November following security concerns from the Royal Navy, which operates a base next to the site. If the planning application is approved, work on the project could begin in 2009 and construction of the

Work on a new visitors centre at UNESCO world heritage site Giant’s Causeway could begin in autumn 2009 for a spring 2011 opening if a planning application by the National Trust is approved by the end of this year. The National Trust, which is working on the scheme in partnership with Moyle District Council, also announced it will be committing £6m to the project to replace the previous visitors centre,

Chester Zoo could undergo expansion works that would see the site triple in size. Leisure Concepts, a design and architecture firm, has put forward a concept proposal for the zoo. The designs include increasing the size of the site to 140 hectares and adding a hotel. The proposal also includes plans for four habitat environments, which would “take visitors on geographic journey”, and a number of water rides that would

The new £2.6m sports centre at Bassingbourn Village College has opened to the public. The new facility includes a multi-purpose indoor sports court, an all-timber gym floor and integrated dance space and a dance bar. Other amenities at the centre, designed by architects Pick Everard, include an all-weather pitch, reception and office area, and separate changing facilities for outdoor and indoor users. Building work featured a number of energy-efficient measures,

Neptune Developments has completed the first phase of a £40m revamp of Southport Theatre & Convention Centre in Sefton, Merseyside. The scheme, designed by Southport-based architects NJSR, saw a new glass-fronted entrance foyer and link lobby being added to the site, along with new lifts to all floors, and new bar and catering areas to the site. Allenbuild were lead contractors on the project, which also included the restoration of

Work on a £300m urban village in Chesterfield could begin in autumn if plans by developer Urbo Regeneration are approved. The scheme, called Chesterfield Waterside, will see a 40-acre former industrial site adjacent to the A61 in the River Rother corridor developed into a mixed-use waterside neighbourhood. The scheme includes 1,200 homes, along with a retail and business quarter, a landmark public square, ecological park, public open spaces, and strengthened

Work on Altair, a £150m development aimed at rejuvenating the centre of Altrincham, in Trafford, Greater Manchester, is set to begin in 2009 for a 2012 completion. The project, which is a partnership between Nikal Property Development & Investment, David Mclean Group and Trafford Council, has been designed by architect Ian Simpson, and will include a 3,000-seat ice rink that will be home to the Manchester Phoenix ice hockey team.

Plans for a new 50,000-capacity stadium for Everton Football in Liverpool have been approved by Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council. The £120m stadium is to form part of a £400m regeneration scheme, called Destination Kirkby, which will include new retail outlets, restaurants, a hotel and office space. Leader of Knowsley Council, Cllr Ron Round, said: “This scheme is an amazing opportunity to change the face of Kirkby forever. “It will create

An astronomical observatory has opened at Six Senses’ Soneva Fushi resort in the Maldives. Located within the flagship resort’s dense jungle, the observatory’s telescope allows guests to observe images of the craters and mountains on the moon, the satellites of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. At certain times of the year, visiting astronomers will deliver presentations to Soneva Fushi’s guests. Details: sixsenses.com