Wealden council awarded £70K via Swimming Pool Support Fund

The award of more than £70,000 will help implement interventions to help improve energy efficiency at Hailsham Leisure Centre - run in partnership with Freedom Leisure - and assist the council to meet its commitment to being carbon net zero by 2050 or sooner.

The interventions include installation of PV solar to offset grid electricity usage and installing a pool cover which will reduce the heat loss from the pool, in turn reducing gas consumption and associated costs for heating the pool. The delivery of those interventions is estimated to save 16 tC02e each year.

The money has come from a second phase of funding in which £40 million of government funding was available for local authorities to invest in improving the energy efficiency of public facilities with swimming pools in the medium to long term.

The demand for the funding was significantly high with more than 700 facility applications received by Sport England and four times the amount of funding requested.

The council's application was assessed against the criteria and objectives of the fund, resulting in the successful award of money.

Unfortunately, the council was unsuccessful in its application for Uckfield Leisure Centre and Crowborough Leisure Centre.

Councillor Kelvin Williams, Alliance for Wealden (Liberal Democrat) and lead councillor for Public Health and Asset Management, said, "I am delighted we have received this funding which will help make environmental changes to the pool at Hailsham.

"This funding will enable the pool to become more energy efficient, perform at its best and enable us to take a step closer to becoming net zero by 2050 or sooner."

Freedom Leisure area manager Toby Reed said, "We are pleased Wealden District Council has been successful in securing government funding via the Swimming Pool Support Fund and we look forward to working with the council to support the swimming facilities at Hailsham Leisure Centre going forward."

Note for editors:

Further details on Sport England's Swimming Pool Support Fund can be found at http://www.sportengland.org/guidance-and-support/facilities-and-planning/swimming-pool-support-fund