A YORK sports centre is having a £1.7 million facelift.

The programme of extensive refurbishment and new building, which has started at Oaklands Sports Centre, is expected to be completed by May 2006.

The centre will remain open to the public throughout this time.

The work will benefit not only Oaklands School, which shares the site with the sports centre, but members of the community, who will be able to continue using the facility during evenings, weekends and school holidays, with extended community use during the day.

The first stage of development will be the refurbishment of an all-weather multi-purpose pitch, which will be suitable for hockey, football, tag rugby and other sports.

Following this, development work will start within the centre to provide additional changing areas, a new bar and lounge area downstairs, as well as a new reception area.

The centre will also be extended to include a new gym, climbing wall and bouldering area, dance studio, and an information and technology suite, which will not only complement the school facilities, but will provide a valuable community resource outside school hours.

The project has been made possible through a number of different funding sources.

These include the Big Lottery Fund, which gave £774,000; Sport England, who provided £261,000; Oaklands School, who gave £200,000; and City of York Council, who contributed more than £390,000.

While the work is extensive, the phasing has been planned to minimise disruption to customers, who will be able to use the centre throughout.

The pitch will be closed for refurbishment, but is due to reopen in time for the start of the autumn season in September.

The sports hall is due to be closed for only one week to carry out repairs to the roof.

Once redeveloped, the centre will be a first-class health, fitness and sports venue for users in York. Andy Laslett, head of facilities, sport and active leisure at City of York Council, said: "This will be a fantastic facility for schools, clubs and the general public.

"It will mean that we can extend our programme of health and fitness classes and run courses in new activities, such as climbing.

"The response from our customers has been great, and we would like to thank them for their patience during the period of refurbishment.

"It will be worth the wait."

Updated: 08:35 Wednesday, May 18, 2005