Sports and Leisure Management (SLM) has announced a number of redevelopment programmes at centres that it runs on behalf of local authorities.

The company, which is also set to open the £38m Basildon Sporting Village in April, will spend more than £2m in improving existing centres during 2011.

The health club at Stratford Leisure and Visitor Centre will receive a £500,000 upgrade which will see the facility double in size.

Among the new installations will be a new group exercise room; new resistance equipment; dance mats and a sports wall supplied by Zig Zag; indoor bikes from Keisure and Trixter; and a Power Plate suite.

Elsewhere, the Dolphin leisure centre in Poole will receive a new gym as part of a £250,000 investment, while Ashdown leisure centre, also in Poole, will see new tennis courts, an athletic track and synthetic grass pits being laid down in a project costing £347,000.

Loughton Leisure Centre in Essex will see the single largest investment, with £790,000 being spent on an extension to the existing gym, a new "movement studio" and a café.

At Blandford Leisure Centre, a £395,000 scheme - part funded by North Dorset District Council and Blandford Forum Town Council - will see the building of a new gym.

Stradbroke Swimming Pool in Suffolk will gain a new health and fitness suite as part of a £500,000 investment.