Facilities: Redevelopment of University Squash Courts

Facilities: Redevelopment of University Squash Courts

16 June 2011

Cardiff University Sport are excited to announce that redevelopment of the Squash Court block located in Senghenydd Road has been agreed, with the works commencing later this month.

3 ground floor squash courts are to make way for a new state of the art fitness facility. The development will include a mezzanine floor that will extend at first floor level over an open plan ground floor fitness room.

The facility will assist in meeting the high demand currently placed on the fitness facility located in Park Place, and will help react to strong opinion received from members of the internal community that completed the 2009/10 Sport survey.

The new facility will increase the opportunities available to students and staff and will provide services to encourage them to participate in regular physical and healthy activity.

The new Senghenydd Road facility will host a variety of cardiovascular and weight resistance equipment, along with audio visual entertainment whilst also retaining the 3 glass backed squash courts located on the top floor of the building to continue to accommodate our squash playing community.

The new facility will be permanently staffed providing all members and squash players with an improved and more convenient service from this location.

The first phase of building work will commence on Monday 20^th June when the Squash Courts will temporarily close to our members. It is hoped that development of the fitness facilities will be completed for the 2011/12 academic year.

There will be no public access to the Senghenydd Road site from the 20^th June, meaning that no squash court activity will be available from 20^th June until further notice. We hope to minimise the impact on our squash players by arranging advance access to the 3 remaining squash courts located on the upper floors once the main demolition and structural work has been completed, and safe access to the top floor can be maintained.

It is hoped that further development will take place in the future to refurbish changing facilities and see the installation of a 10 line climbing wall. It is hoped that this phase will be undertaken next summer.

To complement the new fitness facility, the current Park Place fitness site will be converted to become one of the premiere strength and conditioning gyms within Wales, incorporating a full range of Olympic based training equipment.

Our comprehensive fitness class programme will continue to operate from the Aerobics Studio within this building together with a new dedicated ‘spin bike’ studio that will further add to the range of activities offered in our fitness programme.

This project will reinforce Cardiff University as one of the top Universities in the UK. It will assist in meeting the demands of prospective students as sporting facilities were recently ranked 3^rd in importance in a study of students selecting Universities. The Cardiff University Sport fitness centres will provide staff and students with conveniently located fitness facilities, and present the University sports teams with the top class conditioning facilities required to enhance their quest for BUCS (British University & Colleges Sports) points and honours.