Work on a £10m swimming pool at Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre in Essex will kick-start later this month.

The facility will undergo a redevelopment which will provide the borough of Southend-on-Sea with a new 25m, eight-lane competition pool, with tiered seating for 376 spectators.

A diving pool will be equipped with 3m, 5m, 7.5m and 10m platforms designed to enable synchronised diving, as well as a 1m platform of normal diving width. There will also be two 1m and two 3m springboards.

Executive cllr for culture, Derek Jarvis, said: “This new pool will be a terrific bonus for the town, especially as Southend Leisure & Tennis Centre has been selected as a potential pre-Games training camp for the London 2012 Olympic Games.”

The diving area will also provide a zone for swimming lessons and exercise classes, while a small slide, massage seat, fountain, and beach-style gradient will appeal to less ardent swimmers.

Phase one will see the netball courts at the centre being replaced by new ones next to the existing outdoor tennis courts, as well as the construction a new access route to the pool.

Jarvis added: “The new access plans will enable visitors to reach the pool via a covered route wrapped around the existing dryside leisure centre.”

Saville Jones Architects designed the new pool area, which is due to open in 2010, while Ipswich-based SMC Charter Architects – now Archial Architects – is also involved with the scheme.