INGENIOUS spirit has been celebrated as Darlington's Dolphin Centre gained special recognition for its pioneering academy that promotes staff excellence and entrepreneurship.

The leisure centre was the first local authority organisation to become an Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE) Enterprise Academy in the UK and earlier this month received an IOEE Special Recognition Award.

The leisure centre’s business development manager Lisa Soderman was also presented with the IOEE Intrapreneur of the Year Award for leading the work to secure its Enterprise Academy status.

She said: “It’s all about creating an outstanding work environment, where people who have a passion for making the business successful, have an opportunity to shine and feel valued and get a real sense of achievement and fulfilment from getting a qualification that serves as evidence of their talents and hard work.

"But this is only the beginning as we’ll need to continue to maintain those standards to keep that status.”

For more information about the Dolphin Centre visit www.healthydarlington.co.uk or call 01325-406000.