Public leisure centres in Oxford are getting £10.9million investment to cut carbon, upgrade work will require the four sites involved to be partially or fully closed for certain periods.
Service update - short-term closure of Ferry Leisure Centre
From Monday 13 December, the Ferry Leisure Centre will close for four days to allow essential electrical work as part of installing new low carbon heat pumps for this project. The centre will reopen on Friday 17 December.
We are working closely with the contractors and Fusion Lifestyle to minimise the impact of the work.
Barton Leisure Centre is proving alternative swimming facilities from 13 December 2021.
The timing for these closures has been scheduled to take advantage of the low demand for services in the run-up to Christmas, so that centres are fully ready to provide services in the New Year. January is a time of peak demand from leisure users and the start of a new calendar of swim school activities, so it is important that services are able to open normally at this stage. Fusion Lifestyle staff are working hard to manage the impact on customers and get ready to welcome new and current users in the New Year.
Reducing the carbon footprint
Leisure centres contribute around 40% of the City Council’s carbon footprint,
The upgrade work will see gas boilers replaced with heat pumps that transfer heat from the air or water, which will cut carbon emissions from the Council’s leisure estate by 21%.
Which centres are affected
The four sites to be upgraded are:
- Ferry Leisure Centre
- Barton Leisure Centre
- Leys Pool and Leisure
- Hinksey Outdoor Pool
Minimising disruption to services
The upgrade work will mean some facilities will have temporary closures.
The Council, Fusion Lifestyle and the contractors are working together to minimise the disruption to leisure centre provision across the city.
At Ferry Leisure Centre, the council is hiring the temporary external equipment to enable the pool to reopen around mid-November whilst the decarbonisation works are carried out in the plant room.
By hiring in similar temporary equipment at Barton, the council is ensuring that the construction works at Barton Leisure Centre will not lead to service closures to customers.
Staffing remains a challenge across the national leisure sector, and Fusion Lifestyle is recruiting in Oxford in order to keep a full service offering this winter.
Timetable of works
Hinksey area construction
The work around Hinksey Pool is being undertaken in the closed winter period to minimise the impact of the work. Work began on 15 November to lay the pipes between the pool and the lake. This is a significant project to install heat pumps that transfer solar heat from Hinksey Lake to warm the water in Hinksey Pool, and there will be some local disruption as work progresses.
The installation of the water source heat pump requires trenching through the car park and between the heat pump and swimming pool plant room building. The following sites will have short term closures or restrictions on access to enable work to take place.
- Hinksey Park
- Hinksey Step
- Hinksey Park car park and Lake Street car park
- Hinksey Lake
There may also need to be some restrictions on the cycle path and pitches during the work, the council is working with its contractor Willmott Dixon to confirm the exact detail of which areas will be affected. A small amount of hedging and trees will need to be removed to lay the pipework, but will be restored elsewhere in the park. This is a project to benefit the environment, so the council is committed to offsetting changes to the landscape through replanting and replacement.
Other leisure centre works
The swimming pool at Ferry Leisure Centre has been closed since August to enable asbestos removal in the boiler plant room. The pool will remain closed for the initial work on installing the heat pumps, but the council is hiring the temporary external equipment to enable it to reopen around mid-November whilst the decarbonisation works are carried out in the plant room.
Leys Pool and Leisure Centre will require some closures later this year, as it is not possible to transfer the key heating systems to external machinery. It is expected that the works will mean closing the pool area at the end of business on 7 November for the pipework alterations which start on the 8 November, and will last approximately seven weeks.
Barton Leisure Centre is expected to remain open throughout the works, as the Council has hired in temporary equipment.
Why is this being done now?
The £10.9million funding was awarded by the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund, and was announced earlier this year.
The funding for this programme has been awarded to be spent by the end of March 2022.
Working with community partners
The Council has worked extensively with community representatives in the run up to this project, to understand the needs of different groups and to keep them informed as plans develop.
The Leisure Partnership Board includes representatives from sports clubs, older leisure users, disability groups, Fusion Lifestyle, councillors and council officers, and has been a key forum for discussing the impact of the programme on leisure, sports and wellbeing users.
