Sporting celebrities are being lined up to open a town's long-awaited £20m new leisure centre next year.

The new White Oak Leisure Centre in Swanley will replace the 1960s leisure centre by the same name and is due to open on February 12.

The centre will include a 25-metre six-lane swimming pool with a moving floor, a “state-of-the-art” fitness suite and Tag Active – a game-based indoor obstacle course loosely based off the hit TV-show Ninja Warrior.

Bosses say they are hoping they will be able to bring Olympic champions Max Whitlock MBE and Rebecca Adlington OBE to the grand opening as well as former sprinter Colin Jackson CBE.

The centre will be run by leisure provider Everyone Active.

On Tuesday, the company's regional contract manager, Duncan Cogger, told Sevenoaks council a celebrity would open the centre, but couldn’t confirm who it would be.

He said: “We are hoping to bring in some sporting celebrities. At a recent launch we had Colin Jackson for the day. He’s got a great personality and engages with everyone.

“We are hoping to get Max Whitlock as well, and potentially Rebecca Adlington. We are working with high profile names and they’ll bring down their jewellery and medals.

“At our most recent launch we had over 4,500 people through the doors over the opening weekend and we aim to beat that here."

Welsh former sprinter and hurdler Colin Jackson came to prominence after winning silver in the 110m hurdles at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and after a glittering athletic career now works as a sport commentator.

Max Whitlock and Rebecca Adlington achieved their fame in gymnastics and swimming respectively.

Adlington broke the world record in women’s 800m freestyle in 2008 but retired in 2013 while Whitlock recently won gold on the pommel horse in Tokyo 2020.

Other features available set to be unveiled at the new centre include a virtual group cycling studio and over 130 pieces of fitness equipment.

On opening day a free prize draw, face painting and balloon artists will also be present.

During the meeting Cllr Lesley Dyball asked how the centre could affect local employment and area contract manager Hasan Romel confirmed that some staff from the current centre would be coming over to the new building.

He added: "We are working elsewhere with a lot of local schools and colleges so as students finish their sixth form or coming into the borough for university we run workshops to get them into lifeguard courses.

"We also have recruitment days and will have job fairs with the council to promote any jobs we've got.

"We will look at running a recruitment day in January and will be inviting college students and is in conjuction with the job centre."