Park Sports Centre on track to replace end-of-life gas boilers with solar panels and air source heat pumps
Preparations are underway at Park Sports Centre in Wheatley for construction work to install sustainable energy efficiency measures at the site which could make savings on energy bills and carbon emissions.
Work is expected to begin on site from 16 October. Part of the centre’s car park has been fenced off in readiness for construction traffic and plant to be stored there. As the sports centre shares its car park with neighbouring Wheatley Park School it was decided to put the fencing in place ahead of the start of the school term as a safety precaution. Customers can continue to use designated parking at an area before the turning to the leisure centre.
Last year South Oxfordshire District Council successfully bid for government funding of nearly £1.5m towards installing solar panels and air source heat pumps to replace end of life gas-fired boilers at the leisure centre in Wheatley and at Didcot Wave. Park Sports Centre will also benefit from new insulation and roof replacement work, to improve energy efficiency.
Both South Oxfordshire District Council and Oxfordshire County Council – which has a joint use agreement at Parks Sports Centre – will put in the additional £1.5m to complete the required works by spring 2026.
When all the new renewable energy measures are added to both Park and Didcot Wave it is estimated it will save more than 200 tonnes in carbon emissions each year. This will reduce South Oxfordshire District Council’s overall emissions by 6.9 per cent.
Councillor Pieter-Paul Barker, South Oxfordshire District Council Cabinet Member for Finance and Property Assets, said: “It’s great to see the groundwork starting for the decarbonisation project planned for the Park Sports Centre. The new measures will bring down energy costs and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
“I am pleased to see this operation will follow swiftly on from the installation of solar panels at our leisure centre in Thame this summer, which are already powering the site using solar energy. Next in our sights will be similar work to install renewable energy measures at Didcot Wave, Abbey Sports Centre in Berinsfield and Henley Leisure Centre. All of which will help make our leisure centres sustainable both economically and environmentally.”
Councillor Judy Roberts, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Place, Environment and Climate Action, said: “Climate action is at the heart of everything we do, and our buildings stock is among our main sources of emissions. By making this sports centre more energy efficient, instead of creating CO2 and relying on expensive fossil fuels, they are cutting their emissions and reducing their energy bills in the long term.”
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Notes to editors
The funding has been provided from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme Phase 3c (PSDS3c) run by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which aims to tackle emissions from heating public sector buildings, aid a green recovery and support the UK’s 2050 net zero target and clean growth goals.
The contract for the decarbonisation project at Park Sports Centre has been awarded with a number of stages, where each stage must be completed before moving onto the next one.
