Kingfisher Leisure Centre in Sudbury faces disruption due to water leak caused by theft of roof lead

A leisure centre in Sudbury has voiced its disappointment at the disruption to its services, following a water leak caused by the theft of lead from the roof.

The Kingfisher Leisure Centre in Station Road confirmed that an amount of lead was removed from its roof by an unknown source, some time on Sunday night, creating an opening that allowed rainwater to enter the building.

The issue was detected the following day and repair work commenced on Thursday, but the heavy rainfall overnight into Friday resulted in a leak that affected the studio and a small corner of the gym.

Subsequently, the regularly-scheduled group exercise classes at the facility today and tomorrow have had to be either cancelled or relocated to the Sudbury Sports Centre, while it takes up to two days to ensure the roof is watertight.

A spokeswoman for the Kingfisher Leisure Centre stated they plan to re-open the studio as normal on Monday.

Tracey Loynds, development director at Abbeycroft Leisure, said: "Naturally, we are very disappointed with this latest theft, which causes real challenges for us to be able to effectively operate our services.

"We are in the middle of a £2.4million refurbishment to improve the centre for the community and this is an unwelcome inconvenience.

"However, we have managed to keep disruption to a minimum and we’re working hard to resume services as normal."

Anybody with information about the theft should contact Suffolk Police on 101, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.