THE bill for the refurbishment of Devizes Leisure Centre has gone up by £500,000 after Kennet District Council decided to upgrade gas, water and electricity connections to the centre.

The estimated cost of the work has vacillated wildly since it was first mooted five years ago.

Kennet District Council wanted to spend £3 million on the upgrade but failed to get financial support from the National Lottery.

Much more modest plans were initially priced at £1.5 million and that money was put in the council's reserves to cover it. Councillors then agreed another £370,000 to bring the estimate to £1.87 million.

But the council revealed this week that agreement has been reached with local builders Gaiger Brothers to carry out the work for £2.4 million, including the laying of new utility connections.

Kennet said this work would need to be done in the next few years anyway and doing it now would save users of the centre another upheaval later on.

The work involves replacing all the gas, water and electricity mains in the building. It is not thought likely it will delay the scheme.

The extra money is to come from the council's capital reserves, notably the money paid to it ten years ago by Sarsen Housing Association for the transfer of its housing stock.

Gaiger Brothers has been carrying out preparatory work for the refurbishment for the past six weeks but the contractual work is due to begin on May 16, when the building will close for an estimated three and a half weeks.

When the centre re-opens, visitors will need to use a modified road layout, as well as new temporary access points to the leisure centre itself.

One access will serve the squash courts, fitness suite and sports hall while the other is exclusively for swimming pool users.

Once the work is completed people will be able to use a much-enlarged fitness room, a remodelled cafeteria, new changing rooms for both the swimming pool and "dry side" activities and a new sauna.