A NEW sports development centre for Bridgwater is being launched with a chance for people to see the new facilities at an open day on Sunday.

Bridgwater College Academy Sports Development Centre, formerly known as East Bridgwater Leisure Centre, closed in March after the school secured funding to transform the facility.

The centre has been completely refurbished with new multi-purpose flooring in the four-court badminton wide sports hall, four refurbished squash courts with glass viewing doors, new changing rooms and a floodlit state-ofthe- art 3G pitch accredited by the Football Association.

The centre will cater for a wide range of sports including badminton, basketball, football, futsal, martial arts, rugby and squash.

It is due to open next month but visitors can look round on Sunday from 10am to 2pm.

Clive Wilson, centre manager, said: “The aim of the sport development centre is to create a facility which provides a wide range of accessible and affordable activities for the academy’s students, families and the community to participate in a high-quality and friendly environment.

“The facilities will be primarily utilised during the weekdays to host PE lessons and after school activities, with public use occurring at evenings and weekends.

“I am very excited at the opportunity of managing this project.

Each staff member at the sport development centre has a different skill set to offer which will be valuable in driving participation in the varied programme we put forward.

“The sessions we plan to offer will be affordable to the local community.

We are looking to develop public usage of the centre through casual and block bookings, school holiday activities, junior and senior coaching sessions, operating sports leagues and hosting sports birthday parties.”