Braddan Commissioners’ new leisure centre, ‘The Roundhouse’, is to finally open in the new year.

The development at the Strang has had a number of delays with the project originally meant to open in the autumn.

The commissioners also asked the Department of Infrastructure for permission to borrow £3.6 million from a bank to cover extra costs.

The facility, which will include a sports hall, gym, a pharmacy, a beauty therapist a physiotherapist, a dentist and a 100-cover cafe had originally been budgeted at £6.5m.

Centre manager Cassi McAllister says she’s excited to be welcoming people to the new facility, but there is no firm opening date as yet.

She said: ‘We were never going to open in November. That is when we were going to start moving in and get the tenants fitted out and that is still the case.

‘There’s not a firm handover date, because of some access issues.

‘The construction team have encountered some curve balls and the groundworks team that are there are amazing trying to fix some issues with the car park.

‘Access has been tricky, but they are trying to be accommodating and work around that.

‘It was always expected to be a December opening of sorts, but the tenants decided opening Christmas week was probably not the best time of year to do so.

‘Therefore we’re looking to throw the doors open in January.

‘The sports have started to book in from then, as has the function room.

‘There’ll be a number of businesses opening progressively during January.

‘There’s been loads of questions about the pharmacy.

‘They are sort of an almost semi-separate type of unit at the front of the building. They’re expected to fit out from mid-January with an expected opening date later that month for them.’

Ms McAllister says the new centre’s staff will begin training next month: ‘We’ve completed our recruitment and the staff will start their training and orientation next month.

‘The centre’s booking system is also now up and running.

‘We haven’t put a link out there yet, but we have been contacting all the people who have previously expressed an interest in using the facility and have tried to get them a booking in for the first quarter.

‘It’s been great to offer some of the up-and-coming sports opportunities to train and our amazing facility.’