DETAILED plans for a £13.5 million Olympic-sized swimming pool have been unveiled.
The project at Harvey Hadden Sports Complex is the biggest investment in the city council's revamp of leisure facilities and will include:
-A 50-metre swimming pool – the first in Notts
-A health suite
-A 100-station fitness room
-New changing facilities
-A cafe
The complex, at Wigman Road, Bilborough, will replace Beechdale Swimming Centre, which will be sold to developers.
David Trimble, city council portfolio holder for leisure, said: "It will be fantastic when it's done."
Paralympic silver medal-winning swimmer Charlotte Henshaw, of Mansfield, said: "It's absolutely fantastic news.
"I think we are quite short of 50-metre pools in this country, so I think it will be really valuable.
"However much you practise in 25-metre pools it never replicates a 50-metre pool. This should mean great things for Nottingham."
But the two-year construction time has caused concern among some users of Harvey Hadden.
The sports centre will be closed and the work could affect Harvey Hadden five-a-side centre.
Every evening, 50 to 60 young people play football on the pitches, which are owned by Soccer Dome Ltd.
Operations manager Keith Robson, who has run the pitches since they opened seven years ago, said he did not know if the centre could keep going during the two-year period.
"They're artificial pitches and with the dirt, the grime, the noise while the pool is being built, it's not going to be feasible from a business point of view," he said. "After all this effort, we are now faced with the possibility of going out of business because of this development."
The company is still in discussion with the council, which has offered the company temporary buildings to use and says it has been working to help all the groups which use the site.
