A COMMUNITY centre has a new sports hall floor after it was handed a £50,000 boost.

Parkside Centre in West Bowling, which is run by Bradford Trident, received the cash from Biffa Award, a multi-million pound fund.

Mick Binns, Bradford Trident chief executive officer, said: “We are delighted to celebrate the improvement of this valuable community asset, which will enable local people to engage in sport and physical activity for many years to come.

"It's a major boost for the local area. I'm delighted that we've got this grant."

The Parkside Road centre's sports hall floor, which is used by the community for sports including basketball, five-a-side football and badminton, is the latest section of the Parkside Sports Centre's revamp.

Bradford Trident has spent £500,000, excluding the sports hall grant, on updating the centre's facilities.

The centre's changing rooms, balcony and computer room have been refurbished.

This was followed by the centre's toilets being replaced and also improvements to the community area, including offices and community hall.

Its sports hall has also had a new boiler and electrical system installed.

The old floor had been in place since the centre was built in the 1960s and was badly in need of replacement.

All of this work has taken place over the last year and has been funded from Bradford Trident's reserves.

"The sports hall floor is the final piece of the jigsaw. The rest of the work has been funded by Bradford Trident's reserves," said Mr Binns.

"This is marvellous. We took the centre over about two years ago.

"Local people are using it in increasing numbers. They can use it to play sport and to get fit.

"The centre has been there since 1962. It's had 50 years and now it's fit for another 50 years."

The Council granted a 125-year lease to Bradford Trident in April 2013 to run the youth and sport centre at Parkside Road.

It was transferred under Bradford Council’s Community Asset Transfer Policy.

Bradford Trident is a community-owned and community run Social Enterprise with three community hubs in Park Lane, Marshfields and West Bowling.

Chairman of Bradford TridentTaj Salam said: "This is an exciting development for us.

"This new sports hall floor will give the centre a new lease of life, hopefully giving 50 years’ service like the last one did.

"The Parkside Centre is in the heart of our local community and has a long history, much valued by many local people.

"We aim to work with local residents and other community groups to develop new services at the centre. "