Craiglockhart Tennis & Sports Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland, is one step closer to receiving a £2.5m extension and refurbishment, as plans for the project are approved by the city’s planning committee. The upgrade is part of the City’s Sport and Physical Recreation Strategy, which is intended to make Edinburgh the most physically active city in Europe by 2020.

Edinburgh Leisure, which manages the centre, plans to obtain prudential funding for the development – to be paid back to Edinburgh City Council over the next 20 years.

When complete, the centre will be extended by one storey and will feature squash courts, a new reception area, fitness studio and gym fitted with 42-stations of cv and 27 pieces of resistance equipment by Life Fitness.

There will also be a new studio for yoga, pilates and Bodybalance classes, as well as improved changing room amenities. These will be in addition to existing indoor and outdoor tennis courts, an rpm spinning studio, two sports halls, kayaking pond and meeting rooms.

The designs for the development were drawn up in consultation with Hardies consultants, CDA Architects, Will Rudd Davidson Structural Engineers and Keanans Mechanical and Engineering. Reywood Construction has been appointed to carry out the refurbishment work and the 12-month construction process is expected to start in Summer 2008.