A £16m neighbourhood hub designed to provide leisure, health and cultural services in Great Sankey, Warrington, has been given the green light by planning officials.

Warrington Borough councillors unanimously agreed last night (5 August) to approve operator LiveWire’s proposal to transform the existing Great Sankey Leisure Centre into a multi-purpose community hub.

The centre will feature a wide range of leisure facilities and is envisioned to provide residents with a one-stop-shop for all their leisure, health and wellbeing and cultural needs.

A LiveWire spokesperson told Leisure Opportunities that the contract to supply the planned 120-station gym will be put out to tender. The site will also feature swimming pools, a sports hall, tennis courts, a 3G pitch, GP surgeries, a library, a cafe and wellbeing facilities including a spa.

Construction on the first stage of the development will start later this year, with phase one of the project set to open in Q3 2016. Mpulse are providing strategic project and programme management support to Livewire for the project, while Walker Simpson Architects are behind the designs.

“This new neighbourhood hub will make a real difference to the lives of people in west Warrington by allowing them to access leisure, health and cultural services all under one roof,” said Jan Souness, managing director at LiveWire, a Community Interest Company (CIC).

“It was important to make this LiveWire’s first dementia friendly facility to cater for a growing and older population in the area.”