Climbers have welcomed the return of a climbing wall following a hard-fought campaign by users to demonstrate how much it was cherished.

The climbing wall, based at the newly-refurbished Harrow Council-owned Harrow Leisure Centre in Christchurch Avenue, Wealdstone, shut on November 24 as the squash court it was based in was returned to its original use.

Following a campaign by local users, Damon Clark, managing director of Amphibia, which operates the facility, managed to reach an agreement with the council and contractor Everyone Active for a replacent wall in a different part of the building that opened on Saturday, April 19 with a taster session for climbers.

He said: “It was so nice to see it return.

“I do not think the leisure centre and the council realised the amount of people who used it and benefited from it.

“The local community were fantastic in raising awareness over it, and while it is always a challenge to keep everyone happy we have come up with a solution by working with Harrow Council and the leisure centre.

“It is a great facility, and right on our first day we saw two deaf climbers, some of the autistic users and some blind people come to enjoy it along with all the mainstream users.”

Amphibia operated the wall for five years and had to make its part-time manager and approximately 15 freelance climbing instructors redundant when it closed.

Mr Clark was delighted to reappoint those staff following confirmation the wall would return.

Councillor Sue Anderson (Labour), who used the wall alongside her enthusiastic climber son Keir and was one of the campaigners who fought to stop the closure, said: “My son used it and I did myself, and in many ways it is actually better than it was before.

“It is a really nice group who use it, so it was great to see it back.”