North East & Yorkshire Premier Construction

Bridlington Leisure

Bridlington Leisure
Written by Roma Publications

New complex brings a breath of fresh air to seafront

Bridlington Leisure

A major brand new leisure complex with extensive state of the art facilities including swimming pools, a health suite, fitness suite, sports hall, retail units and a cafe, the East Riding Leisure: Bridlington centre is under construction, replacing an older facility.

Due for completion in summer 2016, the project is a redevelopment of Bridlington Leisure World, which had reached the end of its economic life with its deteriorating building fabric and infrastructure.

The £20m redevelopment is being carried out for East Riding of Yorkshire Council by main contractors BAM Construction, who have been praised for their work on the project. The building was designed by Paul Bird of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s Architects Department.

The old building had become inefficient with increasing utility, repair and maintenance requirements and frequent breakdowns in recent years, and the layout arrangements were unsuitable and of poor quality.

“The building was suffering from terminal problems including the mechanical services. It had been patched up many times and was leaking heavily – as well as suffering heavy contamination from seagull droppings on the extensive horizontal glass sections on the roof,” said Paul Bird.
“In addition, people’s tastes have changes regarding what they want in this type of venue, and the old facilities were dated,” he added.

The project included the demolition of the original building, as well as the construction of the new complex.

The works were delayed for a few weeks following the discovery of archaeological remains on the site which comprised an old house from the 1800s, which was of local interest to the town, but not of major importance.

The 7,000 sq. m. water play building is two storeys high with a small basement area for plant and retail elements. External elevations are in a combination of white speckled masonry to the seaward facing side and pale blue brick to the town facing side, metallic faced cladding panels, high level render and glazing. The building has a flat roof.

The new complex will provide a high quality, sustainable, and flexible building that will be easier to maintain and manage, whilst accommodating an attractive array of facilities. It will bring together wet and dry sports and leisure activities under one roof. It will provide accessible health and fitness facilities that can serve the varying needs of local residents and visitors to the town. The redevelopment not only rationalises and improves the wet and dry sports facilities, but it also contributes to the regeneration of Bridlington town centre.

The building will incorporate: a 25m six lane swimming pool, with a maximum depth of 2m; a 13x7m learner pool with moveable floor – operating to a maximum depth of 2m, and Leisure Water – a freeform pool including water play features and slides connected to the learner pool by a moveable bund. There will also be two slides with aqua run off.

In addition, the venue includes swimming spectator seating for 150 and village style wet changing facilities at pool level.

Additional facilities include a health suite complete with steam room, sauna and Jacuzzi; a 70 station fitness suite; an exercise studio; a spinning studio and a six court sports hall – Specified to Sport England Club level – and two squash courts.

Bridlington Leisure

The building will also include: dry sports and separate members changing areas; a feature climbing wall located within a central ‘street’; spaces suitable for clubroom, dance classes, yoga and children’s parties; a cafe/ coffee shop open to non-centre users and including external seating and views over the bay; health and wellbeing consulting space and third party retail units.

The project includes the provision of over 100 parking spaces on the site as well as a new hard landscaped public open space with seating on the seaward side of the building.

“This facility is probably one of the best of its type. BAM have been absolutely brilliant, they have done a fantastic job. We are very happy with the way that the project is going,” said Paul Bird.
He added that one of the more challenging elements of the scheme was in designing a building suitable for a coastal location, as well as incorporating so many different elements in one building.
“The new complex is an important boost for Bridlington and for local people, as well as the tourists who flock here in the summer months. The building is located on a prominent site on the seafront and is regarded as a ‘bookend’ to its ‘sister’ building, the Bridlington Spa development, which provides theatrical and cultural performance space,” he said.

Working for Bridlington Leisure World, Van Egdom B.V. produced and delivered a Tube 1200 waterslide with a length of 68.9 meters and a Tube 800 waterslide with a length of 56.5 meters.

Van Egdom B.V. has two production facilities in the Netherlands and is an international company specialising in turnkey project development of water attractions and water playgrounds. Van Egdom designs and builds new water attractions and is also the go to specialist in renovation and upgrading of existing water and attraction parks.

A proud market leader when it comes to the production of interactive waterslides and water playgrounds, Van Egdom B.V. has completed more than 5,000 projects in more than 35 countries worldwide.

“We are very pleased with supplying the two different types of flumes. What makes this so unique is that the flume type 1200 contains an interactive gaming experience, where the slider can collect points by smashing the targets. This in combination with the speed makes a unique score. The speed flume type 800 contains a measurement system, where your speed is shown on a big scoreboard, with your time, fastest time of the day and the fastest time ever. This interactive system brings a new dimension to the flume which is spectacular,” said Simon van Dijk, Commercial Director of Van Egdom.

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