A WORCESTER sports complex is on the 'Quest' of a wave after achieving one of the highest award ratings by any dual-use municipal sports facility in Britain.

Nunnery Wood Sports Complex, run by Worcester City Council, has been commended by Quest - the leisure industry's quality scheme, which rates performance in all key management areas, allowing comparison between centres to encourage best practice and continuous improvement.

In July 2000, Nunnery Wood Sports Complex achieved a score of 67 per cent and since then the staff have been working hard towards achieving highly-commended status which is awarded to sports facilities scoring 75 per cent or above.

The centre received a mystery customer as well as a two-day assessment in July and scored 76 per cent, becoming the only dual-use facility to achieve highly-commended status and ranking it within the top 10 local authorities facilities in the country.

Sister facility St John's Sports Centre, also improved on its score from 2000, achieving 73 per cent, just missing out on highly-commended status.

A spokesman for the city council said dual-use sports facilities are at a disadvantage when attempting to achieve the highest scores because they have distinct and separate markets.

During the day they are used by schools and during the weekends and evenings principally, by the public. This can result in heavy wear and tear on equipment and fittings and requires management to be very busy and pro-active in its approach towards maintenance.

Nigel Mansfield, sports and recreation manager for the city council, welcomed the awards and said facilities would get even better.

"The drive for continuous improvement goes on," he said. "The good news for customers at both St John's and Nunnery Wood is that they can look forward to an even better level of service in the New Year, together with the introduction of a new computerised booking and membership system."

Former city mayor Derek Prodger praised the achievement.

"The staff at both Nunnery Wood and St John's are to be congratulated on increasing their scores of two years ago. The result is an improved level of service for the people of Worcester.