An investment of £114,000 is being pumped into the leisure centres in Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill to meet a growing demand for fitness activities.

Abbeycroft Leisure, which manages the centres in partnership with the borough council, is investing £41,000 in Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre to meet growing demand for its exercise classes and £73,000 at Haverhill to expand its gym and power room.

Abbeycroft, which is a leisure trust and social enterprise, ploughs all profits made back into providing health and fitness and this investment constitutes the start of a yearly update programme.

Abbeycroft Leisure chief executive Warren Smyth said: “We are seeing a boom in exercise classes in Bury and in our gym and power room in Haverhill and we need to meet that demand.

“This significant investment that we are announcing will meet that demand and give customers what they need to meet their fitness goals.”

At Bury Leisure Centre exercise classes are at capacity. The trust plans to knock through a wall in studio one into squash court number three to create a larger area for super-size classes.

This will create up to 15 extra spaces per class.

In addition to class expansions, the centre’s crèche will be moved to one of the squash courts with a £2,500 creative learning centre for children. It will be fully supervised and aims to provide a fun and educational environment for children to play in while their parents can work out.

The changes are expected to start in September in phased stages and be complete in the autumn.

At Haverhill Leisure Centre Abbeycroft is investing in an extra 42 fitness stations in the gym. In addition, the combat area which is currently on the third floor will be moved to the ground floor gym making space to expand the popular power room.

An Xcube functional training station will also be installed in the gym which focuses on exercises to build a body capable of doing real-life activities rather than just lifting weights.

The new facilities at Haverhill will be open in the autumn.