CHANGING rooms at Kendal Leisure Centre are to be refurbished in a £450,000 development project set to begin this summer.

Works will see the existing male and female communal dressing rooms converted into a changing village with individual cubicles where families can change together with more space, whilst creating privacy for customers.

All showers will be in individual changing cubicles, with separate male and female toilets. There will also be a designated disabled changing area, baby change area and high quality vanity units and hair dryers.

New showers, flooring and ceilings will be installed along with the addition of a sauna cabin and drench shower to poolside.

The works are a response to a customer consultation carried out in 2016, with £300,000 of funding secured from Lakes Leisure and an additional £150,000 from South Lakeland District Council.

South Lakeland Partnership Manager Derek Jones said: "It’s great so see investment going into the centre and these developments will make the user experience much better.

"The changing village layout is used in most modern leisure centres now and creates a safer changing environment for customers. This is especially important for families, people with accessibility difficulties and their carers.”

Management of the centre is moving over to GLL, a charitable leisure social enterprise, during a merger with previous operators North Country Leisure, which is due to be completed in early 2017. As part of the leisure management contract, GLL will also run Ulverston Leisure Centre and Windermere Outdoor Adventure Centre on behalf of SLDC.

Cllr Chris Hogg Portfolio Holder for Culture and Wellbeing at SLDC said “This is part of our wider strategy to work with our partners to encourage people to live healthier and more active lives. You can’t have a vision without investing in key projects and we hope that the positive impact of the improvements at KLC will be repeated right across South Lakeland.”

A spokesperson for the trustees of Lakes Leisure said: “We are pleased to be able to support such a key scheme to improve facilities for residents in South Lakeland.”

Works will run for eight to ten weeks, with customer information provided during the project. Changing facilities within the locality of the pool will be available throughout the works, with exact details provided nearer the time within the centre, on the centre Facebook page and on the website: www.better.org.uk.

Plans of the new changing layout are available to view in the reception area at Kendal Leisure Centre and any feedback is welcomed to derek.jones@gll.org before March 12.