Funding boost for sports centre

Judo is one of the sports that will be on offer at the new development

A Suffolk college's plans for £3.5m of sports facilities has received a boost.

Sport England has awarded £500,000 to Suffolk New College in Ipswich to help build the on-campus development.

The facilities will be open to students and the local community, and will include a four court sports hall, fitness gym and changing rooms.

The aim is to encourage more young people to regularly take part in sport and sustain local sports clubs. Work will begin in July 2009.

Dave Muller, principal of the college, which has more than 1,000 students aged 16 to 19 years old said: "This is an exciting project. It is critical in terms of supporting the health and fitness of young people in south Suffolk."

Sport England's East of England director, Chris Perks, said: "Providing quality sports facilities is important if we are going to be successful in getting 300,000 college and university students taking part in more regular sport by 2013."

Sports on offer will include trampolining, netball, judo, kick boxing, archery, basketball and five-a-side football.

As many as 1.5 million visits are expected to be made to the centre over the next 21 years.