Oxford Brookes University is inviting the public to use its sports facilities after they underwent a £175,000 overhaul.

In the revamp of the sports centre in Cheney Lane, £100,000 has been spent on a new climbing wall and £50,000 replacing fitness machines.

A further £25,000 went on improvements to its squash courts, sports hall, sports pitches and sauna.

Keith Kelly, director of sport, said: “We’d like everyone – students and the public – to benefit from the investment.

“With this upgrade of the gym and climbing wall, we are offering some of the best sports facilities in the region. “The gym has world-class equipment now and the climbing wall is as good as any in the south of England.”

Of the gym’s 3,000 members, 1,200 are not students.

A large proportion of the 4,750 registered climbers are also members of the public rather than students.

The climbing wall is now 50 per cent bigger and offers a range of different climbs of varying difficulties. Wall manager Richard Cole said: “We now have an excellent facility for the whole of the climbing community – whether you are a beginner or an expert.

“The old wall, though built in the 1990s, seemed very much a product of the 1980s.”.

In the health and fitness suite all 27 resistance or weight-training machines have been replaced and some equipment is deisgned for wheelchair users.

Quarterly membership of the gym is £84.75, with a discount rate of £61.25 for former Brookes students, NHS staff and students at other universities.

It is also possible to pay a joining fee of £75 then £2.50 per session.

Access to the climbing wall costs £7 per session, with lower rates for members.

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk For climbing, email climb@brookes.ac.uk or, more generally, jointhegym@brookes.ac.uk