NEW OPENING
Mountbatten
LEISURE CENTRE
With the launch of a £20m extension to Mountbatten Leisure Centre,
Portsmouth City Council has provided a sports facility which ticks all
the boxes from grassroots to elite provision. Kath Hudson reports
ortsmouth City Council is The first floor has a wellbeing suite redevelopment was mooted many years
P
making a statement with its with a Helo sauna, steamroom and spa. ago. We really wanted to provide a 50m
upgraded Mountbatten Leisure A 150-station Precor gym sits in a 50m swimming pool, as there wasn’t a pool
Centre, both with the innovative tube on the second floor; fully glazed at this centre. A £5.5m grant from Sport
architecture, the quality of facilities down one side and with a glass eye England allowed the project to
on offer and its ambition to cater for at one end giving fantastic views over go ahead and it’s providing fantastic
all sporting levels. the city. Existing facilities at the cen- sports facilities in the centre of the city,
The centre is expected to have a tre have also been given a facelift: the which will be accessible to everyone.”
significant locally, regionally and national- sports hall has a new Granwood sprung The company was appointed by
ly and, with its inclusion in the catalogue floor and the former gym has been the council in 2006, for the DBOM
of 2012 Olympic training camps, it is being converted into a dance studio, while a (design, build, operate and maintain)
talked about overseas too. brand new café overlooks the pool com- contract. Broadwater Leisure was cre-
The jewel of the centre is the 50m plex. Keeping with its 2012 status, the ated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of
swimming pool: the moveable floor outdoor athletics track and velodrome Parkwood Consultancy Services to look
and submersible boom means it can be have been resurfaced to elite standard. after the contract and comprises Kier
configured as a 50m pool, or a 25m and Southern (building contractor), Park-
23m pool complex. The complex also has A LONG TIME COMING wood Leisure (leisure operator) and
a separate 12.5m teaching pool. Portsmouth City Council’s parks and Parkwood Consultancy Services
recreation manager, Seamus Meyer, is (maintenance contractor).
The 50m pool can be configured delighted the plans for the centre have One of the main reasons for the com-
as a 25m and 23m pool complex finally come to fruition: “The idea for the pany’s success in the tendering process
was the innovative architectural plans,
drawn up by David Lambert of local firm
Saunders Architects.
The architecture reflects the location:
a wave to signify Portsmouth’s location
on the coast and a tube symbolises
the submarines which were once
stored close by.
Parkwood Leisure’s contract man-
ager, Danny Churcher, said it’s been an
exciting project to be involved with:
“Projects of this size don’t come around
too often in anyone’s career. It’s an in-
novative building, with an attractive
design and to see it from the founda-
tions to opening feels like an amazing
achievement.”
Issue 3 2009 © cybertrek 2009 Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital 21
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