Work laying the five new pitches is almost complete, meaning that they should soon be available for football, hockey, touch rugby and other team sports from next week.

As well as the five new artificial grass pitches, the Wandle also boasts a modern gym that received a £74,000 upgrade last year.

Last year DC Leisure, which works in partnership with local authorities, invested £850,000 in improving the facilities at local leisure centres, including the refurbishment of three squash courts at Balham, £400,000 on new gym equipment and changing rooms at Putney and new gym equipment at three other centres, including the Wandle.

Over the next two years an additional £850,000 is to be spent on upgrading the borough's tennis facilities.

The council will be spending £350,000 on improving 23 tennis courts at both Battersea Park and Barn Elms, while a further £500,000 is earmarked for the courts in King George's Park, Wandsworth Common, Tooting Common, Leaders Gardens in Putney, Furzedown Recreation Ground and Wandsworth Park. The latter amount will be paid by All Win Tennis Ltd which recently won the contract to manage these courts and is committed to bringing them up to Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) standard.

Work was recently completed on a £100,000 scheme to provide better athletics facilities at the Millennium Arena in Battersea Park, which saw the refurbishment of its eight lane Olympic-standard running track.

This summer an extra £150,000 will be invested in improving the Olympic standard running track at Tooting Bec Common while field athletes will benefit from upgrades of its long jump, pole vault, hammer and discus facilities.

The borough also boasts four indoor swimming pools, plus Europe's biggest freshwater pool at the Tooting Bec Lido.

In addition, the borough's 52 acre riverside sports venue at Barn Elms offers grass pitches for football, rugby, cricket, aussie rules and rounders as well as specialist facilities for archery, athletics, field events, a gym and a boathouse for rowing.

It also has artificial tennis, netball and hockey surfaces and four beach volleyball courts that were created with 1,000 tonnes of sand from last summer's Olympic event in Horseguards Parade.