East Manchester Leisure Centre opens at Beswick community hub creating 30 jobs

East Manchester Leisure Centre has opened its doors this week, featuring a new community swimming pool and state-of-the-art facilities.

The new leisure centre - part of the Beswick Community Hub which has been developed in partnership with Manchester City Football Club and Sport England - opened Thursday, 30 October.

The new East Manchester Leisure Centre will employ 30 full and part-time staff and will be operated by Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL).

The centre is one of three new leisure centres planned for Manchester with other new facilities at Hough End (opening in spring 2015) and Arcadia in Levenshulme (starting in November), aimed at improving health and leisure facilities across the city.

The new 35m by 21m community pool has a moveable boom that allows the pool to be split in two separate swimming areas giving the centre as much flexibility as possible.

At one end a moveable floor also allows a range of depths between 0cm and 2m to accommodate a range of swimming abilities and programmes.

A new health and fitness suite will accommodate 70 workout stations and the dance studio completes the range of new indoor facilities aimed at getting local east Manchester people active.

The development continues outside with a range of new grass sports pitches including a new rugby pitch that will open in 2015 – again for use by local community teams and neighbouring schools.

Cllr Rosa Battle, Manchester City Council’s executive member for culture and leisure, said: “The city council has a commitment to providing top quality facilities that ensures residents have what they need to live healthy lifestyles to live longer happier lives.

“This is a top priority for the city council and new centres with state-of-the-art facilities are vital to support healthy outcomes for communities.

“This is what we have at the new East Manchester Leisure Centre – a community hub for all ages with incredible facilities.

“The Beswick Community Hub – along with adjoining Etihad Campus – has transformed east Manchester. The area is completely unrecognisable from the neighbourhood we can remember only a few years ago, and will be the thriving heart of the community.”