MAKING WAVES.

(From Newcastle Evening Chronicle)

WITH a pirate ship and new wave machine, a leisure pool is set to become a star attraction.

The old Whitley Bay Leisure Pool has been transformed. It closed in June 2007 for a pounds 6m revamp and been restored with new features.

Re-named Waves, it opened yesterday as part of Whitley Bay's pounds 64m regeneration programme to help attract more visitors to the seaside.

Among the first to use it was 10-year-old Owen Greenwell, who won a competition to name the centre, and his classmates from Monkseaton Middle School.

Owen said: "Before the pool closed I used to play there with my friend. I knew …