Work on the impressive new Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility has reached the half-way stage. All the steelworks are now in place and construction on the roof is underway.

The facility, which will serve the local community as well providing a training ground for competitive athletes, will feature an indoor artificial football pitch, a sports hall, gymnasium, athletics hall and dance studios. It will also have outdoor pitches which will include a full size artificial pitch and six 5-a-side pitches.

It will be a key venue for the International Children's Games which will be held in Lanarkshire in 2011 and will be used as a key training ground for Scottish sportsmen and women bidding to take part in the London 2012 Olympics and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

We have provided funding for the facility along with Ravenscraig Limited with an additional £7.3 million backing by the Scottish Government, through the national sports agency sportscotland.

Council Leader, Councillor Jim McCabe, said: "On a site renowned for steel making, it's very satisfying to watch the structure starting to take shape.

"Along with the recent opening of the new Motherwell College campus, this project demonstrates the commitment of all the partners involved to realising the vision of creating a new thriving community at Ravenscraig."

"When completed, this iconic building will provide the whole of central Scotland with a world class sports facility and opportunities for people to realise their sporting potential. And it will also allow us to encourage our young people to adopt a healthy lifestyle and focus their energies on sports."

Jim Fitzsimons, project director for Ravenscraig Ltd, said: "The new regional sports facility will play an important role in the wider redevelopment of the Ravenscraig by delivering real benefits in sport and recreation. It will provide the local community with a range of health, fitness and leisure opportunities, underlining Ravenscraig's potential to have a major transformational effect on Lanarkshire in terms of employment, investment, social benefits, image and health."

Stewart Harris, Chief Executive of sportscotland, added: "It is great to see the progress that has been made at Ravenscraig over the past few months. Once completed, this will be a fantastic facility for the people of North Lanarkshire, and will be a valuable addition to the network of world class training and competition facilities available to Scotland's high performance athletes as well as the local community.

Construction work on the facility began in January 2009 and it is expected to open to the public in Autumn 2010.

When completed, the new facility will be operated by North Lanarkshire Leisure on behalf of North Lanarkshire Council.