<b.STRIPPING off in the bar has become the norm for visitors to Fareham Leisure Centre while the Park Lane complex undergoes extensive refurbishment.

While new unisex changing rooms are being built, fitness fans have to get ready in what used to be the centre's watering hole.

The new facilities, grandly called a "changing village", will still have single-sex cubicles, but will also have better communal/family changing areas complete with their own showers.

Ian Cook, duty manager at the centre, said: "Work is going well, we are looking forward to unveiling the new changing village next spring."

He stressed that the revamp could have been done in weeks rather than months, but staff were adamant the centre should stay fully open.

"We have one of the biggest teaching schools on the South Coast, so we were determined to keep that going. It may look a bit different inside at the moment, but it's business as usual."

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