Wirral swimming pool awarded £40,000 lottery funding from Sport England

Jan 30 2013 by Linda Foo Guest, Heswall News

A WIRRAL swimming pool run by the community has secured £40,000 lottery funding.

Calday Grange Swimming Pool Trust will receive £41,870 to upgrade the facilities to help save energy costs.

The charitable trust was formed in 1996 to save the pool from closure and has 28 groups regularly using the swimming pool.

Since then it has helped thousands of people, young and old, to enjoy various aquatic activities run at the pool.

Money will be spent on installing new high efficiency boilers to heat water in the pool and showers. Low energy electrical fittings for pool floodlighting and changing rooms will also be put in.

Energy costs are a major factor in maintaining the pool, so these energy saving measures will enable the trust to re-invest in the building for future generations.

Trust chairman, Roger Cooke, said: “We are delighted to have secured this investment, which means we can make these upgrades to the pool facility and move forward with confidence for the future in providing an invaluable amenity for the community.

“Securing the funding was the cornerstone of our strategy to have an ever improving facility built from the 2012 Olympics legacy.”

More than a thousand sports projects across the country have been awarded National Lottery funding through Sport England’s Inspired Facilities, which is part of the £150 million Places People Play legacy programme.

Every sports facility that receives funding will carry the London 2012 Inspire mark – celebrating the link to the Games.

Wirral West MP, Esther McVey, supported the trust’s bid. She added: “This funding will allow Calday Grange Swimming Pool to provide much better facilities for patrons, and hopefully will allow this tremendous facility to play a much bigger role in the community.

“People young and older people will be encouraged to become involved in water-based sporting activity.

“My thanks to all those involved in the club who put this bid together and to Sport England Inspired Facilities Fund for awarding this grant.”

Sports clubs in Wirral can still benefit from the Inspired Facilities Funding. The next round of bids will be accepted from March 4.

For more details visit www.sportengland.org/inspiredfacilities

Esther McVey: Page 30