Sir John Whittingdale, MP for Maldon, welcomes the recent announcement from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), that as part of Phase 2 of the Government’s fund to support public swimming pools, South Woodham Ferrers Leisure Centre in Sir John’s constituency will be receiving £233,000.
The funding will be used to provide two much-needed improvements to Leisure Centre’s utilities. The first of which will be to replace the gas boilers which are now 20 years old, and the second will be to install new variable speed pumps.
This comes as part of a package announced in last year’s Spring Budget whereby Sir John welcomed the Government’s announcement of over £60 million of support for public swimming pools and Phase 2 of this support now comes in the form these improvements.
On a national level, Phase 2 will involve Swimming pools across England will be receiving a share of £40 million of Exchequer funding, alongside a further £20 million of National Lottery funding provided by Sport England for the same purpose. This overall investment of over £60 million in decarbonisation will make 325 leisure centres with pools across 264 Local Authorities more energy efficient, boosting the long term energy and financial resilience of the public leisure sector. This will in turn protect the over 45 million visits these sites receive each year; and support more people of all ages across England to have access to public swimming provision and maintain an active and healthy lifestyle for years to come.
Awards were made taking into account a range of criteria, and together with Sport England the Government have prioritised reaching as many Local Authorities as possible. Sir John is glad that the Government has made sure Local Authority prioritisation was taken into consideration, recognising the value of local knowledge and feedback from the first Phase of the Fund.
This announcement means that DCMS and Sport England combined will have invested over an extra £80 million in England’s swimming pools in 2023/24 across 442 facilities.
Sir John and the Government want to emphasise with this particular initiative that sport and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health. Therefore, the Government is committed to ensuring everyone, no matter their age, background or ability, should be able to play sport and be active. This idea underscores the Government’s ‘Get Active’ sport strategy which sets out an ambition to see 2.5 million more adults and 1 million more children being classed as active in England by 2030.
