Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois joined fellow South Essex MP’s John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) and Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) plus other local dignitaries to support the recent public opening of the new Basildon Sporting Village.
The new £38 million sports complex, which is located just off Cranes Farm Road in Basildon, is a purpose built sports village which is designed to serve not just the people of Basildon, but the wider Essex area as well. As well as a fully refurbished athletics track, the sporting village encompasses a 50m swimming pool (one of only a few such pools in the whole of the Eastern region), 2 very large sports halls, one of which has been optimised for gymnastics, a large ultra modern gym (including running machines where participants can chose their own videos to watch while they are running), a set of brand new netball courts and also a new high tech climbing wall.
The sporting village, membership of which is open to the general public, will also play and important part in preparations for the 2012 Olympics. For instance, the Japanese national swimming team have already designated Basildon Sporting Village as their training camp for the Olympics and officials are now in contact with teams from a number of other countries to investigate the possibility of them using the facilities in the run up to the Olympic games as well.
Commenting on the opening of the new sporting village, Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois said:
“The Basildon sporting Village is an extremely impressive facility delivering state of the art sporting opportunities, ranging from one of the best 50m pools in the country through to highly advanced gymnastic equipment and an ultra modern fitness suite. The development of this facility has not been without controversy but now that it has been opened I am sure that people across South Essex will want to take advantage of the facilities on offer, not least as they are also likely to play an important part in preparation for the Olympic Games. Basildon District Council have done a really good job with the sporting village and I now hope that many people in the county, not least my Rayleigh and Wickford constituents, will take advantage of all the sporting village has to offer”.