Luton's £26m Leisure Centre Opens

20 August 2012, 06:00

Its taken 18 months and £26 million but today the Inspire Luton Leisure Centre opens to the public.

The Sports Village has a 50-meter swimming pool (Olympic length) with full diving facilities.

There is also a smaller community pool, gym, three fitness studios and a sports hall.

Councillor Sian Timoney told Heart the main purpose of the new centre is to be able to provide better facilities. They will be demolishing the more tired looking Luton Regional Sports Centre in June next year.

But there is also another reason:

"One of the other key aims is around tackling the health problems that we currently have in Luton- we do have a lot of people with heart disease and diabetes which is higher than the national average

"We have one in five of or children by the age of eleven are classified as obese- this type of prevision here is aimed at trying to work with theses people to try and get them fit and enjoy physical exercise"

The opening could not have come at a much better time with the Olympics in London finishing just over a week ago.

The council are hoping that the games may have got more people interested in trying out new sports such as diving and swimming where they can learn on the new facilities at Inspire Luton.

For those tempted into having a go at diving after watching Tom Daley's performance, there is a 10 meter diving board demonstrated below by two local professional divers...

But if that looks a bit too daunting, there's always another option...