A yoga centre could take pride of place in the rebuilt Harper's sports building in Colchester's Head Street.

The centre, which will also cater for aerobics and other exercise classes, will be on the first floor of the new building, to replace one destroyed by fire 18 months ago.

Below will see a re-creation of the famous store, but with an added feature of a running area, where sports enthusiasts can road test the latest athletics equipment.

If Harper's parent company Eccere UK has its way, the top floor could house a sports injury clinic, with trained physiotherapists offering top medical advice.

Donald Benton, the managing director of Eccere UK, believes it could create the "definitive authentic sports store for authentic sports people."

He said: "We will cater from the skier to the soccer player to the athlete. We hope that all three areas will be able to work with each other and that it will cater for all sporting needs.

"The first floor is the mainstay and that will be the first part to be refurbished and up and running. After that we hope to build upwards, with the yoga and aerobics centre, and then the sports clinic. All of the floors will be connected by a lift."

Mr Benton added he had lost a lot of space in the 12.5 metres by 65 metres building in order to fully meet health and safety regulations.

"We have a lot of fire exits and all of the walls coated in fireproof material," he said. "We don't want a repeat of September 2000.

Published Friday, March 22, 2002