New leisure centre in high demand ahead of September opening

From left, Cllr Sue Bell, mayoress of Fareham Anne Ford, Cllr Trevor Cartwright, Cllr Sean Woodward, Jon Chew from Balfour Beatty, Cllr David Swanbrow, Mayor of Fareham Cllr Mike Ford, Cllr Brian Bayford and Cllr Roger Price pictured at the leisure centre in March

Holly Hill Leisure Centre in Sarisbury Green is due to open in early September after work started last June.The £9m building features a 25m pool with six lanes, a learner pool, a fully-equipped gym, an exercise room and a dance studio.

And yesterday, more than 100 jobs were up for grabs when Everyone Active, which will run the centre, held a recruitment fair at Ferneham Hall.

Manager Ian Cook, who also looks after Fareham Leisure Centre in Park Lane, said: ‘The centre’s opening in September will be a landmark event for the borough and will be one of the biggest things to happen in Fareham this year.

‘We released memberships to the public last week and the demand has been overwhelming. The fact that work is going very well can only be a positive thing.’

Fareham councillor Trevor Cartwright, who is chairman of the Holly Hill Leisure Centre working group said: ‘The work is going fantastically well.

‘I was there just the other day and we are looking all set for early September.’

‘The two pools look almost complete.’

Plans for a swimming pool in the western part of the borough have been in the making for 20 years and Cllr Cartwright added that he’s ‘delighted’ to finally see the dream became a reality.

He said: ‘We have been needing a swimming pool in that area for year and now we can finally say that it’s nearly here. The number of people signing up has been unprecedented and I imagine everyone to be very excited about the whole project.’

The building’s main structure is complete, with the installation of the pool filtration equipment and air conditioning finished.

An audio-visual system for the dance studio fitness gym is now being installed.