Mountbatten Centre redevelopment project

Re-development update

Parkwood Community Leisure are managing the Mountbatten Centre on behalf of Broadwater Leisure as part of a 25 year contract with Portsmouth City Council. Broadwater Leisure are responsible for the £20 million redevelopment of the centre. Work started on site on Monday 7th January 2008 and is due to be completed by the Summer of 2009.

The existing facilities will remain open during the building work.  There will be some disruption, but this will be kept to a minimum.

Parkwood Community Leisure are also be responsible for the management of ten other council-owned leisure sites in Portsmouth. The company have been set targets to get residents involved in leisure activities and will also be working to achieve national benchmarking and quality standards.

Topping Out Ceremony

Portsmouth marked the Beijing Olympics with a topping out ceremony at the new development site of the Mountbatten Centre.

Councillor Terry Hall, Cabinet member for Culture and Leisure, said: "In the middle of the excitment about the Beijing Olympics, it is great to feel Portsmouth is preparing to play a part in the next Olympic Games in 2012.  The topping out ceremony gave us a chance to mark the completion of major elements of the exterior of the new centre, which should be finished on schedule next year."

"The new Mountbatten Centre will provide fantastic sports facilities for the people of Portsmouth, encourage everyone to get active in the run up to the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and help to bring visitors to the city in 2012 and beyond."

The Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, Councillor Richard Jensen attended the ceremony on Wednesday 13th August along with representatives from Sport England, the building contractors, Kier, and Parkwood Community Leisure, the group developing and running the new facilities.

Works

The new 50-metre swimming pool and health and fitness facilities will be built to the west of the Mountbatten Centre's main building, on part of the existing car park. New car parking capacity will be created on both the west and east side of the centre to accommodate the increased usage.  Parkwood Community Leisure have also produced a Travel Plan to encourage more users to take Public Transport and other 'green' methods of transport.

The pool will include a submersible boom and a moveable floor to enable the pool to be set up in different configurations offering a variety of flexible programming opportunities.  The pool will be able to offer a complete diverse range of swimming activity - from fun sessions to synchronised swimming, lane swimming to aquarobics.

However, 85% of the time the new eight-lane pool will be available for community use including schools, children and other learners.  There will also be a 12.5m separate teaching pool.

Progress

After nearly six months into the project the construction works on the Mountbatten Centre are going well. A milestone event has just passed ahead of schedule with the installation of the distinctive curved roofing sections.  This has seen the erection of the 13 x 32m long 'Glulam' laminated wooden beam supports that will form the roof of the 50m pool.

The scale and size of the new development is clearly distinguishable from around the centre and even from the M275 as you drive into the city.

The first and upper floor concrete planks within the barrel structure that will house the health and fitness suites are also nearly completed together with the buildings steel framework.  Once these elements are finished this will enable the critical works to the ground floor 'wet' areas, (new reception, changing village and plant room) to progress and for the installation of the metal pool tank to commence later in the summer.

2012

London 2012 have recognised the potential of the Mountbatten Centre and it will be included in the Pre-games training camp guide for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to be published in the summer of 2008.  It is hoped that one or more overseas teams will base themselves at the Mountbatten Centre in the run up to the 2012 Games.

Further information

The first document below shows the proposed design concepts for the Mountbatten Centre Redevelopment.

The second document is a bulletin from Kier Southern who are building the new pool.

For more information or to join our mailing list, please e-mail mountbatten@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Associated documents:

  Proposed design concepts  (0.26 MB)
Latest bulletin from Kier Southern who are building the new pool.  (0.09 MB)