Commonwealth Games 'huge' for Sandwell, says council boss
The Commonwealth Games is going to be "huge" for Sandwell, a council boss has said with just over a year to go until the competition arrives in the region.
The borough will play a central role in the Birmingham 2022 Games, hosting swimming and diving events at a newly-built aquatics centre in Smethwick.
Games officials and Sandwell Council chiefs took a tour of the aquatics centre site last week to view progress just over a year away from the start of the major sporting event.
As well as putting Sandwell on the map for the week and a half while the Games takes place, bosses believe the competition will be crucial to securing investment for the borough.
The £73 million aquatics centre on Londonderry Lane will also become a leisure centre for public use once the Games are over, another major boost.
Sandwell Council deputy leader Maria Crompton said the impact of the event cannot be underestimated.
She said: "I'm so proud of it, you can now see it.
"You go in there, it's just huge. You've got no idea until you get in there actually how huge it is. The pool afterwards for the legacy is going to be amazing.
"It's not just the aquatics centre, we've got things going on at Sandwell Valley and we will have screens up so people can see what's going on.
"We're going to have people coming from across the country and then they will realise actually what a nice place Sandwell is because people don't realise how green and lush Sandwell is, they think it's just an industrial area of the Black Country so the legacy of this is going to be phenomenal."
After decades of underinvestment in Sandwell, Councillor Crompton said the Games offers a unique opportunity for the borough. Around 13,000 volunteers will also help ensure the event runs smoothly.
"We were going to replace a leisure centre with a leisure centre but for the same amount of money that we've had to find, with the Government money that has come in for the Games, look what we've got instead," she said.
"How proud can people be of that? And they'll use that afterwards when the Games have gone.
"We've seen some of the apprentices who are working on this facility. So we've got local labour, it's work for the borough and going forward, hopefully, this will bring other things to the borough.
"If we can show what we can do here, what we can achieve here, then other industries may come to the borough and it's all for the good of Sandwell."
