£16m spent on refurbishing two Manchester leisure centres

Manchester City Council has earmarked the money for modernising Moss Side and Abraham Moss leisure centres as part of a city-wide strategy of providing state of the art facilities and increasing participation in sport across the city.

The money will provide high quality modernised pools and fully refurbished sports halls and studios, as well as more efficient and modern new heating and electrical systems. The centres already have new gym equipment while libraries are now also based in the buildings.

Once completed, it will mean all of the city council’s leisure centre across Manchester will either have been refurbished or replaced with more modern facilities.

The move will save money in the long term by meaning the modernised centres will have lower running costs and will generate extra income by attracting more users, as well as meaning residents in both areas will have access to modern facilities for another quarter of a century.

The work to modernise both centres is expected to take around a year, with the refurbishment of Abraham Moss in Crumpsall completed by the end of 2017 and the work at Moss Side completed in 2018, and any disruption to leisure centre users will be kept to a minimum while the work is taking place.

It follows a £27m investment which has paid for the construction of three state of the art leisure centres across the city.

The new centres – East Manchester Leisure Centre in Beswick, Hough End in south Manchester, and Levenshulme – have opened over the last two years, attracting large numbers of new users.

Hough End Leisure Centre, which opened less than a year ago, now has more than twice as many users as the old Withington and Chorlton leisure centres, which it replaced.

Councillor Rosa Battle, Manchester City Council executive member for culture and leisure, said: “We are committed to providing local residents with the best leisure facilities possible and the modernisation of Moss Side and Abraham Moss will complete the work we’ve been doing over the last few years – meaning people across the city will all have access to facilities fit for the 21st century.

“The refurbishment of these two centres will not only mean they are much cheaper to run, but it will enable them to attract a large number of new people to use them, attracting more Mancunians to take part in healthy lifestyles and also meaning we can keep them open for years to come.

“At a time when budgets everywhere are tight, our unique invest to save model means we’re putting money into facilities which are vital for improving people’s health and quality of life and which will serve another generation of Manchester residents.”