Ashfield District Council wins leisure centre award

September 2023

Kirkby Leisure Centre has been named “Regeneration and Restoration Project of the Year” at the Insider Media 2023 Property Awards.

Ashfield District Council’s £15.5m project was praised for “having a big positive impact on the town’s health and wellbeing, providing its first-ever swimming pool and being a project that has not only regenerated derelict land, but has re-energised a community.”

Kirkby Leisure Centre was built by Kier Construction and officially opened in August 2022. The project has created 27 new jobs and the centre has seen over 300,000 customer visits in its first year.

The Centre boasts a four-lane swimming pool with a splash-pad for younger children and a Poolpod for accessible pool entry; a multi-use sports hall that converts into a community cinema to provide regular film screenings; an 85-station gym, a soft play area and fun climbing wall, a sensory room to support children and adults with learning and behavioural support needs and a health hub.

Leader of the Council, Jason Zadrozny, said: “We’re immensely proud of what we have achieved in transforming Kirkby Leisure Centre. At a time when other councils are closing leisure centres, Ashfield District Council has done the opposite. We promised the people of Kirkby a swimming pool and state-of-the-art facilities and have delivered that and more. Kirkby Leisure Centre is an incredible facility that is a huge asset to the community to improve health and wellbeing across the District. We’re delighted that our hard work has been recognised in winning this award.”

Contract manager of Everyone Active, who manage the Centre, Lorenzo Clark, said: “It has been fantastic to play our part in the success of Kirkby Leisure Centre so far. For Kirkby to win this award is just reward for the hard work of colleagues, who have done a brilliant job supporting people from across the community to be more active.”

Martin Williamson, Operations Director for Kier in the Eastern and Midlands, said: “Kirkby Leisure Centre has already made a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of the local community and we are delighted that this has been recognised. We are proud to have built a state-of-the-art leisure centre that will continue to support an active and healthy community for many years to come.”

Discover more about major regeneration projects in Ashfield.