The new multi-million-pound Bert Williams Leisure Centre in Bilston is due to open its doors for the first time on Saturday December 3, once the last of the construction work is completed.

The state-of-the-art facility will replace the ageing Bilston Leisure Centre and offer a dramatically improved range of activities for all the family, including an eight-lane, 25m swimming pool, a studio pool, sauna, dance studio and a health and fitness suite kitted out with the very latest equipment.

There will also be four squash courts, a sports hall which can be used for badminton, basketball, netball, volleyball and five-a-side football, dedicated gym equipment for older people and a special Shokk gym for youngsters aged eight to 15. A crèche and meeting room are also provided.

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The Nettlefolds Way centre will be opened for the first time next month by the legendary Wolves and England goalkeeper it is named after – Bert Williams MBE, who grew up in Bradley – and the Mayor of Wolverhampton Councillor Bert Turner.

A short ceremony will take place at 10am to mark the occasion before the doors to the £18.6m centre are opened to the public for the first time.

Councillor Elias Mattu, Wolverhampton City Council's Cabinet Member for Leisure and Communities, said: "It's very exciting that we are so close to the opening of this fantastic new leisure centre, and I am sure the people of Bilston and the surrounding areas are going to be delighted with their new facilities.

"We have worked hard to ensure there will be a wide range of new facilities to suit all ages at the centre, including the very latest fitness equipment with specially designed pieces for older and younger customers, a main hall which can be used for a number of different sports, and two pools for swimmers of all abilities.

"We are also providing more exercise stations than we have in the current leisure centre as well as a brand new sauna, sports hall and dance studio – and the best news for our customers is that we have been able to keep charges for the new centre at their existing levels."

The city council's main contractor Shepherd Construction is due to hand over the new facility to the authority in the next couple of weeks. It will then be kitted out with a mix of new equipment and some transferred from the existing centre on Prouds Lane.

(CD)