The big white construction site hoardings went up around the borough's biggest sports centre just over a year ago. Now the building work is visible, LINDA PIPER went behind the fences to find out what has begun to take shape ...

THE new sports and swimming centre at Crook Log, Bexleyheath, is going to be quite something when it is finished.

At last people in Bexley will have some top-notch facilities when the centre, and a similar one in Erith, are opened later in the year.

And Bexley councillors and Parkwood Leisure are convinced the 21st-century surroundings and equipment will encourage people to get involved in more physical activity.

At first, it is difficult to get your bearings on the building site which will become the new centre by next June. It is hard to see how the multi-purpose sports hall, already in use since the summer, fits into the rest of the new building.

But temporary bricked-up doorways will eventually be knocked through into the centre's new foyer, putting in place the last pieces of the jigsaw.

Even though it is still a building site, with barely-built walls and no ceilings, it is still difficult not to be impressed.

The tired and now distinctly shabby Splashworld pool will be replaced by a 25m eight-lane competition pool, complete with a public viewing gallery with seating for 200 spectators.

Next to it is a large training pool with moveable floor, which will be especially helpful for disabled swimmers who can be eased into shallow water and have the floor lowered to reach the required depth of water.

The pool area has its own separate changing rooms and showers.

Away from the pools there is a dance studio/multi-purpose room with a double-height ceiling and a mirrored wall, as well as a sauna and steam room.

There is also a timbered bar and food area with floor-to-ceiling windows on one wall.

The first-floor fitness studio/gym is enormous and will accommodate 150 people.

Also on the first floor will be a solarium, with a reception and waiting area together with treatment rooms and showers.

Both wet and dry changing areas have facilities for the disabled and the centre will have two lifts so all its facilities are fully accessible.

And the entrance to the new centre will be via a huge glass atrium on the opposite side of the building to the old one.

There will be more parking and a new entrance, with work starting soon to alter the existing mini-roundabout at Crook Log.

Crook Log manager Justin Palfrey is convinced the balance of facilities is right. "There is massive demand for swimming lessons in Bexley which a leisure pool cannot provide. There are leisure pools in neighbouring areas if people want to visit them," he said.

He is also convinced gym and fitness facilities are not a passing fad.

Parkwood has been set targets of attracting six traditional low-use groups into the new facilities, says Parkwood's community liaison officer Wayne Cullen.

These are the 11 to 19-year-olds, disabled people, the over-60s and over-60s with a disability, social classes D and E and ethnic minorities.

It has taken eight years of hard work by both Tory and Labour councils to bring 21st-century sport and leisure facilities to Bexley and the end is almost in sight Erith's new sports and swimming centre is set to open in the spring, followed by Crook Log in the early summer and work is due to start in Sidcup next autumn.