BCP Council agrees to pay £478,500 to upgrade plant room at Two Riversmeet leisure centre

COUNCILLORS have agreed a near-half-million-pound rescue package to keep Christchurch's award-winning public leisure centre operating.

The ruling cabinet at BCP Council, which owns the Two Riversmeet facility, approved spending £478,000 on upgrading the plant room as old equipment was putting at risk its ability to heat the building and two pools.

A report to the ruling Conservative cabinet outlined how the centre had been hit by recent plant failures, due to age and poor condition.

It went on: "Further plant failures will potentially lead to the centre being unable to operate and loss of revenue.

"Replacing existing plant with modern, more efficient plant will also save money in running costs and reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change."

It explained the existing gas-fired boilers were considered to be at the end of their economic life, with one of the four boilers having already failed.

Cllr Jane Kelly, the cabinet member for communities, health and leisure, said: "We're really lucky in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole: we have nine leisure centres all of which are well used and appreciated by our residents, increasing the health and wellbeing for the community.

"There is just one which is run in-house, Two Riversmeet, which has won the south-west England prestige award for leisure centre of the year for three consecutive years.

"We are so proud of this and congratulate the team on their consistent hard work."

She added the centre, which has around 6,000 visitors per week, would make savings of £63,000 per annum with the new equipment, and improve the experience for customers.

Cllr Mike Greene, who seconded the motion, said the change to more energy efficient equipment would mean 90 tonnes of carbon would be saved each year which would help the council's action towards climate change.

Council leader Cllr Philip Broadhead called the upgrade "a very exciting time" for Two Riversmeet leisure centre.

The report said: "Following the unprecedented rise in energy costs, the recent failure of plant items together with their inherent inefficiencies compared to modern alternatives, [we] need to refurbish the plant room and to install new controls and monitoring to enable full control of all the operational plant within the centre to reduce overall energy consumption."

It said the changes would also allow renewable technology to be installed further reduced energy consumption and therefore reduce carbon emissions.

The report added that the gym's existing air ventilation system would also be replaced and both pools fitted with modern covers to ensure the heat of the water is retained and humidity controlled.

The money for the works, from the council's Green Futures Fund, was approved by members.