The new boathouse at Cwmbran Boating Lake will be officially opened today with a special opening ceremony including a performance from Nidus Children's Choir, to showcase the building for community groups, funders and local politicians.
The celebrations will also highlight the wider Cwmbran Riverside Park visitor facilities that are in development, including Llanyrafon Manor.
The original boathouse was destroyed in an arson attack three years ago. However Torfaen County Borough Council has successfully rebuilt it based on its original design. The new building has upgraded facilities including new pedalos with a café facility for visitors and rowing boats also planned for later in the year.
These works, complemented by a major programme of ongoing environmental and landscaping works mean the popular attraction has benefited from more than £600,000 of improvements over the past three years.
Councillor John Cunningham, executive member for neighbourhood services, said: "The new boathouse is a superb asset for the local community and the environmental improvements that have been created around the lake mean the area is somewhere for everyone in Torfaen to be very proud of. It will also attract more visitors to the attraction, which can only be a good thing for local businesses and the economy."
Councillor Bob Wellington, leader of Torfaen council, said: "While everyone was shocked when the boathouse was destroyed in 2007, Torfaen has really seized the opportunity to bring forward a whole range of improvements not just with the rebuilding of the boathouse, but to the lake and surrounding environment.
"The revitalised lake and new boathouse will be a superb asset not just for today, but for future generations and we will be looking to build on its important strategic role as a gateway for people to explore Torfaen and the rest of the Valleys region."
Last year the council carried out a series of award winning improvements to the environment around the lake. The works included new viewing platforms, a wet woodland and island habitat and improved access and repair works to the lake edge and footpaths. The works were funded by the Assembly Government, Cwmbran Operational Group, Environment Agency Wales and Splash, a water recreation challenge fund.
The facility will complement a series of other visitor centres that operate as country parks, heritage sites and nature reserves across the Valleys, which together with a network of off road cycling and walking trails, collectively comprise the Valleys Regional Park (VRP).
The council was awarded £161,000 from the VRP programme for landscaping the area around the new boathouse, including new surfacing, walls, and boat mooring, and a further £200,000 of works is programmed to improve the inlet ponds, play areas and river corridor along the Afon Llwyd. The Boathouse, Lake and restoration of the adjacent Llanyrafon Manor are collectively recognised as a tourism gateway into the Valleys.
The Valleys Regional Park aims to raise the profile of the valleys as a place to live, work and visit by improving the quality of the region's countryside, heritage and tourism assets. The initiative which is being managed by 40 organisations working collaboratively as a Valleys Partnership, has benefited from more than £21 Million of investment from the European Regional Development Fund and Welsh Assembly Government, and will make a significant contribution to the promotion of the Valleys as the Heart and Soul of Wales.