A SPORTS hall costing £2.2m is being built to help improve the health and educational prospects of a Teesside community.

Details of the project were announced yesterday, only days after The Northern Echo told of a "ticking time bomb" caused by a shortage of sports spending.

The community sports hall at Acklam Grange Secondary School, in Middlesbrough, will improve sporting facilities for its students as well as the pupils from the feeder primary schools.

It will be available after hours for community use and will have an inclusion centre to help pupils at risk of being expelled from school, reach their full potential.

Joan Ford, chairwoman of the West Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Trust, said: "It will be a huge boost for the whole community with benefits for health and education.

"The inclusion centre is a much-needed resource because it will provide extra support for those children who require it whilst at school.

"The scheme is a shining example of partnership working at its best and we look forward to many other such projects in the future."

The building will include a four-court sports hall and a dance and fitness area.

The inclusion centre will have classrooms, offices and meeting rooms and will support and work with pupils in the area who are at risk of being excluded from school and in need of additional support.

John Bate, headteacher at Acklam Grange, said: "The tremendous co-operation between our school, West Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Trust and Middlesbrough LEA will provide this wonderful facility for our students and the community that the school serves.

"This brand new centre will give our students greater access to the opportunities they deserve."

Seventy per cent of secondary school children living in west Middlesbrough attend Acklam Grange. Money for this latest project has come from the Government's New Opportunities Fund and Sport England.

The Northern Echo has reported potential health risks because of a financial crisis hitting spending on sports.

Councils said budget cuts were affecting the state of leisure centres and swimming pools and that the future lay in partnership approaches.