WORK has started on the latest part of a major expansion of sports facilities in the North-East.

Durham University, which is investing £31m in its sports facilities at Maiden Castle, on the outskirts of Durham city, has started work on a new sports hall.

The facility includes an indoor cricket hall, a 12 court multi-use sports hall, suitable for international and national competitions, a martial arts dojo, fitness suite, purpose-built recovery facilities and high performance weights rooms.

Durham University’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor Owen Adams, said: “These exciting new facilities will leave us perfectly placed to reinforce our position as one of the very top sporting universities in the UK.

“We believe in the extraordinary power of sport and physical activity to bring together people of all backgrounds and abilities – whether they are students, staff, or members of the community.”

University leaders and centre staff and users attended a special ground-breaking ceremony to mark the start of construction work, which is being carried out by construction firm Galliford Try.

Once the new facility is ready in August 2019, the existing centre will be refurbished, increasing the facilities for fitness classes and building a specialist sports laboratory.

The improvement works will eventually also include the construction of a fitness and wellbeing trail from the Racecourse to Maiden Castle.

Mr Adams added: “Our existing Maiden Castle centre is already very popular with local residents and all of the new facilities will be accessible to the local community on a daily basis. We think this development can be transformative for sport in the city and the surrounding area.”