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A Manchester leisure centre has been officially reopened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning (September 13).

Abraham Moss Library and Leisure Centre reopened to the public this summer, following a multi-million-pound investment from Manchester City Council, and council members gathered today to celebrate the renovated facility.

The work is part of the council's long-term transformational strategy to renew and modernise leisure facilities in Manchester.

This follows the multi-million pound refurbishments and reopenings of the Manchester Aquatics Centre and the National Cycling Centre this year.

The Abraham Moss renovation has significantly transformed the campus by introducing a new, modern library and leisure facilities.

Facilities include six-lane swimming pool, learner pool, steam room and sauna, two squash courts, health and fitness suites, (including gyms and studios), sports hall, changing facilities, and the North's very first Urban Cricket Centre, following investment from the England and Wales Cricket Board.

We went down to witness the ribbon-cutting ceremony and take a tour of the new facilities.
Transcript
00:00 A popular Manchester Leisure Centre has been officially reopened with a ribbon-cutting
00:04 ceremony this morning on the 13th of September. Abraham Moss Library and Leisure Centre reopened
00:11 to the public this summer following a multi-million pound investment from Manchester City Council
00:16 and Council members gathered today to celebrate the renovated facility.
00:20 The work is part of the Council's long-term transformational strategy to renew and modernise
00:25 leisure facilities in Manchester. This follows the multi-million pound refurbishments and
00:30 reopenings of the Manchester Aquatic Centre and the National Cycling Centre this year.
00:35 The Abraham Moss renovation has significantly transformed the campus by introducing a new
00:40 modern library and leisure facilities. Facilities include a six-lane swimming pool, a learner pool,
00:46 a steam room and sauna, two squash courts, health and fitness suites including gyms and studios,
00:53 a sports hall, changing facilities and the North's very first urban cricket centre following
00:59 investment from the England and Wales Cricket Board. We went down to witness the ribbon-cutting
01:04 ceremony and take a tour of the new facilities. "Well it's definitely very exciting and there's
01:08 a lot of people here as you can tell and they're all excited including a group of local school
01:13 children who've been telling me they've already been using the facility because we publicly
01:16 opened it a couple of months ago. It's a project that we started in 2021, it's had a lot of
01:22 bumps in the road along the way with a pandemic and all the rest of it but here we are today.
01:26 The important thing about this is it's a co-located facility, it's a library and a
01:31 leisure centre. This is the fourth of such facilities that we operate in the city and
01:36 we want to bring more of those facilities so that our residents can get their mind and their body
01:42 made more active in the same place in the same facility and so that's why we've done it in the
01:47 way we are. It's a 24 million pound investment in this local community but it's also a city-wide
01:53 facility. I mean it's a good thing in itself to be physically fit and active because you can get
01:57 more out of life, you can enjoy life, you can spend more time with your kids and your family
02:00 and out and about in our fantastic city using our fantastic parks and public spaces. A more serious
02:06 point is that Manchester is a very unequal city in terms of health. The health outcomes for many
02:12 of our residents are very poor in comparison to other parts. So some parts of the city,
02:17 life expectancy, chronic illnesses are worse than they are in other parts of the city,
02:21 other age groups, demographics. So we want to tackle the inequalities in Manchester and this
02:27 is very much a strategic part of that programme about making people more active, fitter, more
02:32 able to enjoy life by being able to get out and about and use these facilities and so it's not
02:39 just about elite sport. We're very keen on elite sport. Mancunians love sport. We want people to
02:44 enjoy the facilities. In the last two months or so we've opened the Manchester Aquatics Centre,
02:49 we've opened the National Cycling Centre at the Velodrome, reopened after massive investments.
02:54 This is a serious strategy that we're embarked upon. We are serious about tackling health
02:59 inequalities in this city and this is the latest example of us doing that.

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