A children's pool is set to shut for more than a year while a £20 million town centre regeneration project gets underway.

The Beachfields paddling pool will close while Sheerness’ leisure facilities undergo a facelift.

While the pool itself is not going to change, its surroundings will, with more space for seating and picnic tables, while the walls and fencing will be repainted.

There will also be toilets within the fenced area and a serving hatch to the new café at Sheppey Leisure Complex.

Swale council, which was awarded the funding from the government's Levelling Up scheme in January 2023, says the work will make the area a more “pleasant place to relax”.

But due to construction, the paddling pool will be closed until summer 2026.

The makeover is just one element of the larger Sheerness Revival scheme that aims to improve the health and wellbeing, education and leisure facilities on the Island and create new employment and training opportunities.

The upgrades include a new heritage-themed adventure golf course, which will open this summer.

There will also be an outdoor gym and a two-storey side extension of the Sheppey Leisure Complex.

The GP facility on the ground floor will be expanded, and a new footpath between Sheerness railway station and the centre will be built.

Meanwhile, work started just a stone's throw away on the £5.4 million expansion of East Kent College Sheppey in February, which is also being paid for by the grant.

The former council offices at Masters House in Trinity Road are also being refurbished, with new workshop spaces created there.

When the plans were first revealed, there was disappointment from some who said they did not go far enough.

For example, many people had called for the town’s indoor swimming pool to get a makeover.

It was one of four facilities earmarked to be upgraded as a “priority” in Swale council’s revamp “wish list”.

The authority’s strategy for its leisure sites is part of its measures to prepare the borough for a population boom over the next decade-and-a-half.