As workmen busied around the site and managers spoke enthusiastically about the future, The Venue seemed to have put its troubles behind it.

In just over two months the £18m leisure centre will open its huge rotating doors to the public, revealing a state-of-the-art gym, swimming pool, conference suites, dance studio, beauty rooms, spa, sauna, bar and restaurant, to name a few of the facilities.

Hertsmere's leisure bosses promise: a complex with pools that people can use all day, unlike the 'dry' Hawksmoor Centre which Hawksmoor School had day use of; a health club as good as any private club in the area and facilities tailored to those with children and disabilities.

The top floor of The Venue will be Beaumonts Health Club, which people can join for £38 per month, or pay between £2.70 and £3.70 per visit.

The glass-walled fitness studio is set to have television screens, and 85 pieces of exercise equipment, including treadmills, bikes and weights, with some suitable for wheelchair users.

The club is also promised to have: an air-conditioned dance studio, whirlpool spa, steam room and sauna, beauty and massage rooms, private-hire and conference facilities, a licensed bar, lounge-restaurant and children's cinema area.

The ground-floor level has three swimming pools, suites for aerobics, private-hire facilities, a soft play area for children and a cafe.

The eight-lane, 25-metre long pool is believed to be the first in the country to have underwater safety cameras.

The six cameras, attached to the sides of the pool below the water-level, will film colour images relayed to screens on the two lifeguard chairs.

The cameras can be directed to focus on the same image to see it from different angles.

Hertsmere Borough Council's leisure manager for Borehamwood, Angela Speddy, said: 'If there is light and glare on the water it is very difficult to see beneath it with the naked eye, and if you have got inflatables in the water it gives you the ability to see beneath them, which a lifeguard will not be able to do.'

The teaching pool has an adaptable-bottom to make it deeper or shallower according to the ability of the swimmers, and the children's pool has a water feature.

The leisure department's commercial manager, Mark Young, said: 'Beaumonts Health Club will be as good as any private club in the area, with regard to the facilities and the accessibility, and it will be at an affordable price. We now have a swimming pool which is probably one of the best competition pools in the area.'

Work on the site started at the beginning of 1998, and the large pool was completed in February last year.

It was closed earlier this month for contractors to begin work on the gym and remaining facilities.

The Venue, designed by Newcastle-based architect FaulknerBrowns, is scheduled to open on September 30, with laser light shows over the pool.

Anyone interested in viewing the facilities prior to the opening date is asked to call 020 8386 9886.