Planning approval has been granted for a new leisure complex within the Windsor Park stadium development in Northern Ireland.

The new development, led by Belfast City Council, will replace the site’s existing Olympia Leisure Centre and be incorporated into the stadium’s new West Stand.

The facility will provide leisure facilities including a pool, learner pool, café, gym, sports hall, spin studio and ancillary accommodation.

Owing to the increasingly poor condition of the current Windsor Park stadium, various proposals for the replacement of Windsor Park have been mooted in recent years, but in September 2009, the Irish Football Association (IFA) announced that its preferred option was to remain at the ground following a full redevelopment.

In 2011, the Northern Ireland Executive allocated £138m for a major programme of stadium redevelopment throughout Northern Ireland, with £28m allocated to the redevelopment of Windsor Park.

Plans will see Windsor Park become an 18,000 all-seater stadium with a series of phased works originally intended to begin in the summer of 2013. Plans included the demolition of both the Railway and South Stand structures to be replaced by new stands that would partially enclose the stadium, the complete renovation of the existing North and West Stands, and construction of both new conferencing facilities and a new headquarters facility for the IFA.

Field dimensions would remain at 110 x 75 yards (101 x 69m) and the stadium will be used as the home for Northern Ireland’s national team and Linfield FC.

Planning permission for the redevelopment has already been granted, with the estimated cost of the project, including the leisure development at around £29.2 million. In December 2013, three months after the work was originally scheduled to begin, the redevelopment was finally given the green light, with Ireland's sports minister Carál Ní Chuilín signing off on £31 million of funding to complete the project. Work is scheduled to be completed by 2016.