Reading school children help fill the new Palmer Park community pool

The new 25-metre community swimming pool at the new Palmer Park Leisure Centre and Stadium was filled with water this month, in anticipation of the facility’s opening in December.

School children and staff from Alfred Sutton primary school, alongside representatives from Reading Council, GLL and Pellikaan Construction, gathered eagerly around the poolside on Thursday 3 November to celebrate the pool’s official filling.

Watch a video of the progress at Palmer Park so far here:

View photos of the progress here:

Over a five-day period, the 25-metre, 6-lane community swimming pool, which has a maximum depth of 1.2 metres, was filled with the equivalent of 325,000 litre bottles of water!

In addition to the accessible new community pool and the refurbishment of the existing stadium building, there will be:

• A 100-station gym;
• An activity zone for children with party rooms;
• New changing rooms, toilets and Changing Places facility;
• A new café and information hub;
• A new pedestrianised plaza area surrounding the centre;
• And a new wayfinding route, to enable people with visual impairments to easily navigate the route across the park.

In September solar panels and an air source heat pump were installed on the new roof. As part of the Council’s commitment to tackling the climate emergency, the sustainable measures we’ve invested in will equate to a 50% reduction in the carbon emission rate of the new pool’s heating system. An air source heat pump is used to provide the heat source for warming the water temperature, reducing the carbon footprint of the pool.