Woburn Lido gets help from Sport England to improve facilties

Woburn Lido has secured £38,000 of National Lottery funding from Sport England's Inspired Facilities fund.
Woburn lidoWoburn lido
Woburn lido

The money will be used to make essential improvements to the facility which was first established in 1911.

The improvements will include a new lining for the pool, new rubber crumb surrounding and a new heating facility which will enable the water to be heated for the first time in over four years.

Sport England property director, Charles Johnston, said: “The Inspired Facilities Fund has had a huge impact on grassroots sport across the country.

“Since 2011, we have invested £102 million into more than 1.920 projects to improve and refurbish sports clubs and transform non-sporting venues into vibrant community sports clubs.

“It is great to see Woburn Lido join the long list of successful clubs to benefit from this fund.”

Woburn Lido is among 148 local sports projects to receive the funding from the fund which has been helping to breath new life into old community sports facilities and converting existing buildings into venues suitable for grassroots sport.

Chris Smith, Committee chairman at Woburn Lido, said: “Since the existing committee took over Woburn Lido in early 2014 there have been some critical issues discovered with the structure of the swimming pool which jeopardised the use of the facility and more importantly the future of the charity as a whole.

“The work carried out by our committee to collate the information required to support the application to Sport England have been overwhelming, given how incredibly detailed it was.

“This work has culminated in as award from Sport England and the National Lottery, securing the future use of Woburn Lido for at least the next 15 years.

“Once the works are complete, Woburn Lido will arguably be one of the best outdoor lidos in the South East of England.

“For this we have to thank the customers that have stood by us during the unheated seasons and to our committee of volunteers, most of whom have families and full time jobs themselves, for their efforts in making this grant a reality.”

Local MP, Nadine Dorries said: “Well done to all those who have secured lottery funding for the renovation of Woburn Lido.

“The village has protected a tremendous asset to be enjoyed by future generations. I hope to take a dip very soon!”

Community and voluntary organisations, councils and schools can bid for a share of £5 million to help upgrade facilities that can be unattractive, expensive to run and difficult to maintain and to convert existing non-sporting buildings into venues that are suitable for grassroots sport.

The Inspired Facilities Fund is an open programme which means projects can submit applications at www.sportengland.org/inspiredfacilities.