THE area's NEW ice arena has officially opened.

The Slough Ice Arena, in Montem Lane, was opened to the public on Monday – and queues of residents eager to get their skates on were forming inside as soon as the tape was cut.

Alan Sinclair, director of adults and communities at Slough Borough Council, said: “It’s really good to have an arena like this - which will be here alongside the other sports facilities that will be opening in the next year. It’s great to have a real state of the art facility - building the building is one thing, but getting people inside it, and getting them active, is what’s really exciting.”

Two young women from Maidenhead were among the first in the new ice arena. Mia Rosten, of Hargrave Road, and Jess Irvin, of Blackmoor Lane, both 17, were eager to get back into figure-skating with the opening of the new arena.

Miss Rosten said: “We’re really looking forward to it - we’ll both be figure skating like we used to. It’s something we did a lot in the old ice arena.”