Swimmers will be able to splish and splash at opposite ends of the town from next Saturday morning following the opening of the Watford’s second new swimming pool.

The former Watford Central Baths swimming pool will open on Saturday, August 9, completing the £23m refurbishment of the town’s leisure centres.

Renamed as Watford Leisure Centre, Central, the new facility boasts a six lane swimming pool and learning pool, a four court sports hall, as well as a 60 station gym and a dance studio.

The news follows the opening of Watford’s other, bigger, leisure centre at Woodside in June.

Both centres will be managed by Sports and Leisure Management (SLM) and members of the facilities will be able to use both leisure centres and swimming pools.

The Hempstead Road centre also features a new climbing wall, a café, crèche and both wet and dry changing facilities.

The centre was officially handed over to Watford Borough Council by the construction firm, Pellikaan, this week.

To commemorate the occasion a plaque was unveiled by Mayor of Watford, Dorothy Thornhill and Councillor Shirena Counter, cabinet member with responsibility for leisure issues.

Speaking at the handover event, Councillor Counter said: “Today marks the culmination of all the hard work of the various members and organisations who helped plan, design and build this fantastic new facility for the people of Watford.

“Although I am thrilled to see the completion of this second new leisure centre, it is a sad day when the team that we assembled to undertake the project will now go their separate ways.”

Mayor Thornhill added: “The completion of Watford’s two new leisure centres means that we can now offer twenty first century facilities to residents.

“As well as a wider range of activities they will also be much more energy efficient than the old centres, as well as cheaper to run.”