By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter
British Winter Olympics icon Eddie The Eagle will attend the rearranged opening party for the new £15.5m Kirkby Leisure Centre.
Ashfield District Council has revealed the skiing star, whose real name is Michael David Edwards, will appear at the event next month.
He rose to fame in 1988 when he became the first competitor since 1928 to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping, finishing last.
However, he held the British ski jumping record between 1988 and 2001 and a film about his story starring Taron Egerton was made in 2016.
Now it has been confirmed he will visit Nottinghamshire next month to celebrate the opening of the new leisure hub, off Hodgkinson Road.
The former Festival Hall centre, which will now become the new hub’s car park, has been demolished.
Its “all singing, all dancing” replacement opened to the public in August last year and the official party was due to take place in September.
However, the council had to cancel the event following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and has now rearranged it.
It will take place on Saturday, March 11 and Sunday, March 12 and is also expected to feature local Paralympic hero Ollie Hynd.
Swimmer Ollie, who was born in Mansfield and went to Ashfield School, won three gold medals at Paralympic Games including London 2012 and Brazil 2016.
Ola Jordan, a former Strictly Come Dancing professional, is also expected at the event.
Speaking during the full council meeting on Thursday (February 2), Councillor Rachel Madden (Ash Ind), cabinet member for leisure, confirmed the rearranged dates.
She said: “We’ve knocked down Festival Hall which is a shame, there’s a lot of history in Kirkby gone.
“But we’ve got the brand-spanking-new, all singing, all dancing leisure centre.
“I’d like to flag up that the opening weekend will be March 11-12. Of course, we had to postpone it last time due to undue circumstances.”
Cllr Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind), the council’s leader, added: “One of our UK sporting heroes, Eddie The Eagle, will be at the Kirkby Leisure Centre on March 11.
“On March 12, the third cinema screening shown in the Kirkby Leisure Centre will be the Eddie The Eagle film with a unique interview recorded beforehand where he will be answering questions about his career.
“We’ve also got Ola Jordan from Strictly Come Dancing and Ollie Hynd.”
