The new changing village at Barry Leisure Centre has opened to the public.

The key element in the Vale of Glamorgan Council's investment into the leisure centre, the new changing village uses new cubicles and lockers to create a fully accessible space that gives all users more privacy and groups and families more spaces to change together.

In addition, the new changing village includes dedicated school changing rooms to better accommodate groups of pupils. It also includes new showers and toilet facilities.

Cllr Kathryn McCaffer, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Arts and Culture, said: "The Vale of Glamorgan has some of the best used leisure facilities in all of Wales.

''We know just how valued these are and that is why the Council is putting significant investment into the leisure centres in both Penarth and Barry.

"The construction of the changing village has been a very complex project and one which has required at times real ingenuity from the contractors G. Oakley & Sons Ltd, Legacy Leisure and the council team managing the project to keep the facility open to the public.

"On behalf of all involved I would like to thank the users of the centre for their patience while this has been completed.''

Rob Oaten, Contract Manager for Legacy Leisure Vale of Glamorgan, said: "The facilities at Barry Leisure Centre are very popular and we want to provide the best experience possible for our visitors.

"The significant investment in the changing village is part of this. We listened to user feedback and created an area that we believe will meet these requirements and provide a comfortable, accessible and much-improved changing space.

"Projects of this size and scale can often uncover challenges along the way, but everyone involved has worked tirelessly to overcome these and I would like to thank the local public for their ongoing support as we continue to improve the leisure facilities across the region."

As well as the demolition of existing walls and removal of cubicles, lockers, ceilings and ventilation and lighting units, the construction of the changing village required excavation of the leisure centre's floor and a completely new drainage system to be installed.

The next stage in the improvements is refurbishment of the dry changing rooms. This is due to begin shortly.