St Ives Leisure Centre and Helston Sports Centre have both been awarded Swimming Pool Support Fund Round 2 capital grants to support a reduction in their swimming pools’ energy use.
Operating under the Better brand, both centres are run by GLL on behalf of Cornwall Council.
They have been awarded £207,000 in total – £157,000 towards the installation of solar panels and energy efficient pool pumps in St Ives and £50,000 for solar panel installation in Helston.
The latest funding announcement follows GLL’s success with round one revenue funding of £449,168 for six of their swimming pools – in Bodmin, St Ives, Helston, Liskeard, Newquay and Saltash.
The application to Sport England’s £60m Swimming Pool Support Fund was completed by Cornwall Council in partnership with Cornwall’s swimming pool operators in the Autumn – with £40 million provided by government and a further £20 million from lottery funding. As with the revenue funding, the scheme was heavily oversubscribed with awards being made to just over 300 swimming pools across England.
James Curry, Head of Service for GLL, said:
“This award is fantastic news for the future sustainability of St Ives and Helston swimming pools. We have reduced our energy consumption by 48% in the nine Cornish leisure centres we have been operating on behalf of Cornwall Council since 2017 – the equivalent of more than 8 million kilowatt hours to date.
“We are very grateful to Sport England, the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Cornwall Council for their help in making our Cornish swimming pools more sustainable. The money has to be spent by early 2025, so we are now working hard to progress our projects in line with the terms of the award.”
Councillor for Helston North Mike Thomas said:
“I fully support this investment in Helston Sport Centre and would like to thank all GLL staff for their commitment to this important local facility.”
