Work has now officially begun on the £9.3m Queen’s Park Sports Centre in Chesterfield, with a ceremony confirming the start of the construction process last week.

The project recently received a boost when £2m of extra funding was awarded by Sport England to help push the project along and extend original plans for its facilities, with other investors including main backers Chesterfield Borough Council and Chesterfield College, which has agreed a dual-use contract.

The project is currently seeing a new facility being built for the local community on a site at Queen's Park Annexe, with the development being built to replace the town’s existing sports centre.

The facility is to house an eight-lane swimming pool, a learner pool and eight sports courts all featuring spectator seating. Other offerings at the centre include an 80-station gym, additional activity studio, three training rooms, two squash courts, plus a café and social space.

Plans also include dedicated changing facilities to accommodate the differing leisure formats on offer at the centre.

The project has seen Morgan Sindall appointed as the contractor to deliver the project, with the firm already gaining considerable experience having built the Ark Leisure Centre in Matlock. The council has insisted on a clause in its contract specifying that the firm should use local labour and materials where possible.

“The new centre offers a once in a generation opportunity to offer modern, cost efficient and energy efficient town centre sports and leisure facilities that will help deliver our aim of encouraging more people in Chesterfield to live healthy and active lifestyles,” said councillor Amanda Serjeant, Chesterfield Borough Council’s executive member for culture, leisure and tourism.

Chesterfield’s current Queen's Park Sports Centre on Boythorpe Road will remain open until the new centre is complete, with an opening date set out for early 2016.