Swimming pools at two Cumbrian leisure centres will partially close to allow a £1 million scheme to make the buildings more energy efficient to be carried out.
Westmorland & Furness Council has received funding from Sport England’s Swimming Pool Support Fund to make the Appleby and Penrith centres more energy efficient and sustainable.
Planning permission has been submitted to install solar PV panels and upgrade swimming pool windows to triple glazing at both centres.
The council said it was contributing additional funding to make further improvements to the building structures, to complement the decarbonisation work and help to reduce energy usage and costs.
Penrith Leisure Centre will see roofing maintenance work and additional insulation installed, while Appleby Leisure Centre will benefit from upgrades made to its roofing insulation and an automatic door closer will be added.
The swimming pools at both centres will require partial closures for three weeks to allow the work to happen.
From March 3 at Appleby Leisure Centre and March 10 at Penrith Leisure Centre, all swimming pools will be open from 6.30am to 7.30am.
They will then close to allow work to take place during the day. The pools will reopen at 5pm and will be open as usual at weekends.
The work is being carried out during weekdays to reduce the disruption as much as possible.
Club activities can carry on as normal at weekends, with some small changes potentially needed on weekdays.
During the work at Penrith Leisure Centre, alternative changing facilities will be available via the dry side changing rooms, with access provided to the swimming pools.
Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), which manages the buildings on behalf of the council, will be in touch with pool membership holders and swimming lesson customers with further information before the works begin.
Most Swim School lessons will be unaffected due to the evening and weekend openings; GLL will contact any swimming lesson customers who are affected individually.
GLL is contacting schools directly to discuss alternative health and physical activity sessions.
The council said all options had been considered to limit the disruption to pool users, but due to contractors completing the work and scaffolding being installed in the pool halls, the pools will need to close between 7.30am and 5pm on weekdays.
During the work, Penrith and Appleby memberships will be accepted at all other GLL Cumbria centres, the closest being Kendal Leisure Centre, The Sands Centre, Carlisle and Cockermouth Leisure Centre.
On completion of the triple glazing project, work will start on the solar PV installations onto the sports hall roof at Penrith Leisure Centre; this is expected to take 17 weeks.
Scaffolding will be installed externally around the building so there may be some disruption to access for some areas while this work takes place, but all affected users will be contacted prior to the work starting.
Once all stages of the project are completed, the combined energy saving measures will bring estimated lifetime carbon savings of 1,625 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), the equivalent of taking over 460 long haul flights from London to Hong Kong, the authority said.
