Work begins on £6m project on Oxfordshire centres

Work has begun on a £6m project to make two leisure centres in Oxfordshire more environmentally sustainable – and cut energy costs in the process.

The first one to benefit from the project is The White Horse Leisure Centre in Abingdon, where work is now underway on replacing the centre’s old gas boilers with air-source heat pumps. The pumps will be powered by 600 new solar panels being added to the roof.

Similar works will then be undertaken at the Wantage Leisure Centre later this year.

Vale of White Horse District Council (VWHDC) – which owns the centres – says the developments will provide a huge reduction in both energy costs and carbon emissions.

VWHDC has calculated that its overall carbon emissions will be reduced by more than 25 per cent, which will help it reach its target to become carbon neutral in its own operations by 2030. The works are expected to be completed by March 2026. Both centres are operated on behalf of the council by GLL.

The new energy efficient measures have been made possible by the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), run by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and delivered by Salix.

The scheme has given VWHDC nearly £6m towards upgrading the centres.