Larkfield Leisure Centre pool switches from gas to heat pumps under £1.16m PSDS grant

Air source heat pumps have been installed at Larkfield Leisure Centre in Aylesford, Kent, taking the 25 metre fitness pool off gas-fired boilers under a project backed by a £1,164,760 Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme grant, Salix Finance said on 20 October.

The pool water and pool hall temperature are now controlled by a new heating and ventilation system, according to Salix, which manages the scheme as the delivery body for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

The centre is operated by tmactive for Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council. Salix said the switch could save hundreds of tonnes of carbon a year.

Cllr Robin Betts, Cabinet Member for Housing, Environment and the Economy at the council, said: "This is a change that may not be visible to users but has been an important project for the council and marks a significant step in our efforts to reduce carbon emissions across our leisure facilities."

The funding

Alongside the scheme grant, Salix said the project received £370,000 from Sport England to pay for energy saving measures including additional solar roof panels, LED lighting and improvements to roof insulation. The council's own releases give different figures: in April 2024 it put the Sport England contribution at £405,000, and in August 2024 it itemised £393,000 for solar panels and £12,039 for LED lighting from the Swimming Pool Support Fund.

The project also drew on the Business Rates Pool Shared Growth Fund, which Salix described as money to support local projects that benefit communities and help the Kent economy grow.

In April 2024 the council said the government and Sport England's £60m capital programme had by then funded more than 500 upgrades at over 300 swimming pools.

Procurement

The council was inviting tenders for the design and installation of the heat pumps in August 2024. Its cabinet awarded the contract for the heat pumps and a replacement air handling unit to DMA on 12 November 2024, noting that the successful tender was within the approved budget.

Solar on the roof

Salix said the heat pumps can run on electricity from 600 solar panels installed on the centre roof over the past 18 months. The council's 2024 releases said 190 panels had been fitted in 2023 with more to follow, so it is not clear from the two sources whether the 600 figure includes the earlier array.

Zoe Wragg, client relationship officer at Salix, said: "As well as this, the community now has a more energy efficient site which is future-proofed for the generations to come."

Emma Wood, chief executive of tmactive, said the new system is now installed and operational.

Larkfield is the borough's busiest pool, with 189,000 swimming visitors in 2025 and 738,000 visitors to the centre overall, according to Salix.

The wider programme

The heat pump work forms part of a programme across the council's leisure estate. Salix said 140 solar panels were installed at Tonbridge Swimming Pool in 2024; the council's August 2024 release put the figure at 180 panels, saving an estimated 16 tonnes of carbon a year, having given about 14 tonnes in April 2024.

The council is also working on plans to replace the Angel Centre in Tonbridge with a carbon neutral facility, which Salix said are progressing.

The scheme

The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme provides grants to public bodies for heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures, according to DESNZ. Phase 3 provides more than £1.425bn of grant funding over the financial years 2022/23 to 2025/26. Under Phase 3c, DESNZ said, 209 public sector organisations were awarded grants for 244 projects.