Wealden council awarded £70,000 from 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.

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.”

The Government’s Swimming Pool Fund was announced at the Chancellor’s Spring Budget last year, and has been split into two phases, totalling over £60m from the Exchequer and £20m from Sport England’s Lottery funding.

Nusrat Ghani MP said: “This is excellent news for Hailsham and a much-welcome result following my meetings with Freedom Leisure CEO and previous representations to the Treasury.

"Health, leisure and sport facilities play a key role in building resilience and well-being of our communities, and I am delighted that Hailsham will benefit from over £70,000 from this highly competitive fund to ensure that local residents can have better access to a healthy lifestyle.

"The Swimming Pool Fund is a significant investment in energy efficient interventions and will improve the sustainability of many facilities across the nation, as well safeguard their future provision.”

Phase 1 delivered £20m of support for 196 facilities most at risk from closure, while Phase 2 is providing further investment of £40m of Exchequer funding and £20m of Lottery funding, which will enable over 300 public swimming pools across England to improve their energy efficiency.