IT is a sight people in the Edgbaston area have waited over ten years for and many thought they would never see.

But on Tuesday the first swimmer will take the plunge in the new £12million Harborne Pool and Fitness Centre.

The gleaming new building in Lordswood Road replaces the old pool which was over 80 years old and in desperate need of repair.

The Harborne Society started a campaign to get it replaced in 2002.

But it was only after nearly a decade of wrangling and lengthy consultations that it won the day and the old pool was demolished and work began on its replacement.

The building is the first new leisure centre the city council has built for 22 years and it is also the first to be run by a private company.

D C Leisure, which operates fitness centres for 30 councils across the country, won the ten-year contract to run the centre.

Timing is everything as the pool was signed off just before the austerity measures were announced – any later and it would have been just another mothballed project.

And the bonus was that 60 new jobs were created because the new centre is much bigger than its predecessor with more facilities and needs more fitness instructors, cleaners, lifeguards and receptionists.

Crucially, in these belt-tightening times, the pool came in £600,000 under budget and ahead of schedule.

Although it stands on exactly the same spot with the same ‘footprint’, locals have got so much more for their money.

The old baths had just one pool with the changing rooms around the side of the pool and very limited fitness equipment.