Residents buy £10 leisure centre

The keys to a former council-run leisure centre in Nottinghamshire have been handed over to a community group who bought it for just £10.

Campaigners The Lenton Centre (TLC) decided to buy Lenton Leisure centre after it was closed by Nottingham City Council in 2004.

Two years on, work will start on the building to re-open the centre.

Jenny Hills from TLC said the centre would work well providing a meeting point for a fragmented community.

Business with heart

"We have a vision of making it good again, turning it into an attractive building and because the community is behind it and there, we can do all sorts of things that wouldn't be in the council's mind," she said.

While full plans are at any early stage, organisers said TLC's charitable status meant they could apply for grants not available to the council.

TLC's Carl Towner added that the coming months would be full of hard work trying to get the centre up and running.

"We're at the start of a journey where, as an organisation, we have to develop into a business organisation while not losing our social heart," he said.

He added that a street party would be held when the centre reopened.