Work on a long-overdue £20m leisure complex featuring cinema in County Durham that was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic has got underway – as anticipation builds for the new facility to open.

Proposals to build the much-needed venue, which will be on Fieldon Bridge Retail Park in Bishop Auckland, have been a long time coming after developers gained the approval to start building several years back.

Despite design company Studio Anyo bringing excitement to people in Bishop Auckland earlier this year when they released an artist impression of how the complex could look, work on the ground has been sparse throughout 2022.

Read more: First images revealed of new cinema and leisure complex in Bishop Auckland

However, at the start of this week, diggers and other heavy machinery was spotted at the soil mound that will become Fieldon Bridge Retail Park – sparking interest in when the new venue will open.

Studio Anyo has already completed work on earlier elements of the project, including securing planning permission and detailed architectural design, but it now seems that work is at full flow.

It is now set to complete the design of onsite works as the next phase of development gets underway this spring, which will involve technical design working alongside the principal contractor and wider design team to deliver this phase of the leisure-led development.

Here are some pictures of the site's progress: 

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Pictures: SARAH CALDECOTT.

Studio Anyo director, Craig Kipling, said: “We continue to go from strength-to-strength with more work for the same client.

“This along with other work reflects our ability to take a strategic view of major property investment plans from an architectural perspective while delivering high quality work for clients.

“We continue to grow our commercial offering and this latest success comes as we expect to achieve further growth in 2022 on the back of new work in the region and across the UK.”

While an official timetable for the complex hasn’t yet been set – it’s expected that work will progress relatively quickly on the 150,000 sq. ft. retail and leisure park on the 14-acre site on the east side of the current Tindale retail park.

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