A COUNCIL has revealed plans for a new multi-million pound leisure and sport centre.

The complex for Hyndburn Borough would be located on Wilsons Playing Fields in Clayton-le-Moors.

The £6million project would include a four-lane 25 metre swimming pool, gym, group exercise studio, changing facilities, sports hall and café.

It will replace the out-of-date leisure complex and pool at Mercer Hall in Great Harwood.

The new sports hub is part of a £10m upgrade of leisure provision in Hyndburn which include a £4m refurbishment of the borough's main leisure centre in Church, revealed at the council's cabinet this afternoon.

Cllr Miles Parkinson, the Labour leader of the authority, unveiled the plans with an announcement that it had secured £2m from the government's Public Sector decarbonisation fund for 'green' initiatives.

This will pay towards the refurbishment of the 50-year-old Hyndburn Leisure Centre and the replacement of its boiler system with an environmentally friendly system cutting carbon emissions by 74 per cent.

He said he had put away £1m for investment in sports and leisure facilities and the council and Hyndburn Leisure would seek further cash from outside bodies including Sport England.

Cllr Parkinson said: "The new centre on Wilsons Playing Fields is an exciting and important development for the health of our residents. This is a brand new proposal.

"It is the most significant investment in leisure in the borough since Hyndburn Leisure Centre was built decades ago.

"The existing pavilion will be demolished and the new centre would be close to the existing athletics tracks and sports fields.

"We will be looking at what to do with Mercer Hall in consultation with Great Harwood residents. It now past it useful life as a sports centre but it has been repurposed before from a dance hall to a swimming pool.

"The council and Hyndburn Leisure will also be looking at smaller hubs in Hyndburn's other townships."

His Conservative group opposite number Cllr Marlene Haworth said: "The new leisure centre seems like a good idea but we will need to consider the details carefully, especially how it is going to be paid for."

The new proposals follow an expert consultants' report for the Hyndburn Leisure Trust which said: "The Wilsons Playing Fields site has the potential to become a hub for sport and physical activity for the borough."