At 6.30am next Monday (May 18) the face of leisure in Huddersfield will change forever.

One person will go down in history as the first customer at the new £36m Huddersfield Leisure Centre at Spring Grove Street – and today we give you an exclusive view of what’s inside now all the work is done.

Swimming and fitness suites will open first at 6am and will be followed around 9am by a host of other facilities opening up.

Bosses expect demand to be high as users finally get to see what the new centre, which has been the best part of 10 years in the planning, has to offer.

The old sports centre off Leeds Road which was built in 1974 – the year Kirklees came into being – closes for good on Friday, May 15.

And few people have worked as hard as Hazel Francis who started life as a lifeguard 20 years ago at the old centre and worked her way up to be general manager at the new one.

Video Loading

She has lived and breathed the project for the past four years and says she has enjoyed being consulted by contractors BAM on the design and operation of the centre.

“Seeing everyone’s faces when they walk in will be just amazing,” she said.

“It’s the ‘Wow’ factor and I am just so proud of every single part of it, every little bit, even down to the style of the shelves in the store room. That is how meticulously it has all been planned.

“Every bit means something to me.

“We have been fortunate the builders have asked us to be part of its construction. I can’t wait for everyone to come in and use it. It has been a long time coming.”

The Examiner was given a privileged glimpse behind the scenes over the weekend and can testify that the new centre will do the town proud.

Tour of new Huddersfield Leisure Centre, Springwood, Huddersfield - climbing wall.

It’s not just the big things such as the swimming pool which has been designed to standards necessary for competitive events to take place and the fitness suite but the little things such as a purpose-built ‘buggy park’ where mums and dads can lock their prams with specially designed locks.

Or take the Village Changing Room built for families where you can pay £1 for three people wet from a swim to enter the Hurricane and have their skin blow dried in just a few seconds without the bother of towelling down.

As well as traditional sporting past-times such as taekwondo, dance, squash, badminton and five-a-side football there are new activities such as bouldering and climbing which are bound to attract users.

And managers have been anxious to build a fun element into proceedings with A Splash Park where children can enjoy water cannons, a squirting turtle and crab, a Sidewinder – like a roller-coaster on water – as well as tipping buckets and a chute.

Tour of new Huddersfield Leisure Centre, Springwood, Huddersfield - fitness suite.

There will be car parking spaces for 120 users – 10 disabled spots – and the subway has been re-engineered into an underpass so customers can walk under the ring road straight into the new centre from Huddersfield Bus Station.

Ms Francis said: “I will be sad to see the old sports centre go but sad for the right reasons as it had served its time and we are ready for this now.

“I even have a lump of concrete from the old one on my desk to remind me of the many happy memories I had there.

“Normally, as operational people to work on creating something like this would not be something we would get involved with, but I have had a proper input into this from the choice of furniture, everything.

“I have worked with a big group of people over the last few years.”

Lindsi Blakeman, sales and retention manager for Kirklees Active Leisure, added: “It’s absolutely amazing and I can’t wait for the treadmills to be full and the kids enjoying doing their swimming lessons. Everyone has been waiting for this moment on May 18, for so long.”