This is how the controversial new Worthing Aquarena sports centre could look.

Architects Wilkinson Eyre have been chosen by Worthing Borough Council to design the new £17 million complex, which will replace the existing run-down building.

Initial plans include a 25-metre pool, combined learner/diving pool, indoor leisure pools with rapids and flumes, a health and fitness centre, café and crèche.

John Rogers, the council’s cabinet member for regeneration, said the original plans were being kept to, despite the budget being cut from £22 million.

He said: “It is the quality of the architects shining through that they have shown us we can have all the things we wanted originally but for less money.

“The design and options they have come up with are marvellous and nothing has been left off of the original specifications.”

“As for being overshadowed by whatever replaces the old Aquarena, no one has said what will go there yet and any plans would have to go through the council first and we would make sure that it was in keeping with the new centre.”

He added that it would be about two years before any building work actually started.

But while the council is celebrating having picked its preferred designer, others are still concerned that the project could turn out to be a damp squib.

Councillor Bob Smytherman, the Liberal Democrat opposition leader, said he feared the final design would not include all of the promised facilities and would be a let-down.

He said: “I think it's a great design but I feel it's selling the town short really.

“We need to build something that is going to last not just 40 years as the current Aquarena was meant to do but to exceed that.”

Coun Smytherman explained that the Lib Dems were holding a meeting with a private consortium next week to discuss ways of developing the whole site rather than simply building a new facility and then selling the old Aquarena to a developer.

He said: “The design looks very pretty now but that's not how it'll look once the old Aquarena has been knocked down and flats built in its place.

“If we developed the whole site at the same time we would provide a much better facility which would put Worthing on the map and which could include an ice rink and sandy beach area.”