ALMOST £2.5 million is set to be spent creating a new public gym and sports centre at the old Burnholme College site in York.

A new library and community centre opened on the site a fortnight ago, and next week councillors will decide whether to invest £2.45 million on sports facilities at the Bad Bargain Lane site.

Cllr Nigel Ayre, York’s executive member for leisure, said: “This is a significant project to improve sporting and active leisure in the city and complement provision at Energise, Yearsley and the Community Stadium.”

If it goes ahead, the investment will fund a fitness gym with inclusive and accessible equipment, studios for fitness classes, a junior gymnastics coaching programme, pitch improvements outdoors and fencing to try to keep dog mess off the areas.

Cllr Ayre added: “We’re creating new opportunities for more inclusive all-weather sport and fitness facilities as well as building on existing community links to improve residents’ health and fitness levels.”

Opening hours would go up from 20 a week to 75, and there would be open access to the fields and continued access for schools and sports groups that currently use the site. The centre would be managed by GLL, the same company that managed council sports centres at Yearsley Baths and Energise.

The new centre would also be home to a GP exercise referral programme for doctors across the city to send their patients.

Council health chief Cllr Carol Runciman added: “We’re proposing a programme of activities which will attract a wide range of users of all ages and abilities."

“We will encourage informal and more structured activities for all ages, including reaching out to older people, families and those with medical conditions to encourage them to be more active.”

If approved at a council meeting next week, the money will come from the sale of closed council-owned older people homes and Tang Hall library, as well as planning payments from developers.

The new plan is around £1.5 million more expensive than older versions of the scheme, which comes on top of an estimated £81,000 overspend elsewhere at Burnholme.

Councillors are being asked to hand over around £1 million from care home sales that have already gone through, and to earmark more cash from future sales for this project.