Sunderland's £20 million Aquatic Centre opens in blaze of colour » Local Government » 24dash.com

One of the country’s top sporting facilities opened to the public today following a massive outdoor spectacular.

The £20 million Sunderland Aquatic Centre developed by Sunderland City Council has already been earmarked as a potential training camp for the 2012 Olympics.

It is the first 50 metre pool in the North East and the only one between Leeds and Edinburgh.

The opening followed a massive, free celebration featuring large-scale light projections, fireworks, outdoor theatre, dancers and imaginative special effects which attracted an audience of almost 5,000 thousand people and a smaller indoor event showcasing the wealth of sporting talent including synchronized diving, synchronised swimming and aquabatics.

Among the performers taking part was aerialist and choreographer, Chantal McCormick, who performed a specially choreographed routine swimming across the night sky 600 feet up in the air from a crane.

The event was organised by Magnetic Events in collaboration with Sunderland City Council and Culture10 at NewcastleGateshead Initiative.

Said Paul Dobson Sunderland City Council’s Director of Community and Cultural: "The opening of one of the country's top sporting facilities in Sunderland is very much something to be celebrated.

"The Sunderland Aquatic Centre not only offers fantastic facilities for the people of the city, it is a unique regional and national sporting venue.

"This event was a fitting celebration to launch the Centre which will have a positive impact on the city and its people, with benefits ranging from a boost to the local economy as a result of additional visitors to helping local people improve their health and wellbeing."

The Sunderland Aquatic Centre houses a competition-sized swimming pool, a 25m diving pool and a two storey, state-of-the-art Wellness Centre.

It is also the most environmentally friendly pool in the country – filtering and recycling every single drop of water which falls on its roof for re-use in the pool.

With a 10-lane 50-metre main pool, a 25-metre diving pool and seating for 500 spectators the Sunderland Aquatic Centre has the ability to cater for high profile national and regional swimming competitions.

In addition its moveable floors, which can vary the water depth from anywhere between 0 to 2 metres in the main pool and 0 to 4 metres in the diving pool, make it as suitable for toddlers learning to swim as talented swimmers.

And the clever design of the building is such that the 50 metre main pool also has a moveable boom, which allows the pool to be divided up to cater for everything from aqua-fit and family fun with inflatables to budding Olympians - all at the same time.

The £20million Aquatic Centre is also be one of the most accessible swimming pools in the country, trailblazing the latest disabled accessible features which mean that everyone will be able to take advantage of its superb facilities.

It boasts a state of the art wellness centre, delivered in partnership with the city's Teaching Primary Care Trust, where people prescribed exercise by their GPs will be able to take advantage of some of the most advanced technogym equipment in the country, alongside regular gym users.

Sunderland Aquatic Centre has been funded by Sunderland City Council, Sport England, European Regional Development Fund, One NorthEast, TyneWear Partnership, Sunderland arc and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

Further information, fact sheets and hi-res images of both the interior and exterior of the Sunderland Aquatic Centre and of the outdoor spectacular are available from: