Representatives of the team working on the design and development of the London 2012 Aquatics Centre made a visit to Leeds last week as part of a fact-finding tour around recent 50m pool sites in the UK. The group, made up of staff from Sport England and the London Development Agency, are working on the legacy elements of the 2012 pool.
Their fact-finding tour is a direct result of a visit to the Leeds Aquatics Centre made by Sport England Chief Executive, Jenny Price just before the pool opened in October 2007. She was very impressed with the flexibility in pool configuration that the two submersible booms and floating floors provided, particularly in providing opportunities for performance training and competition and in supporting and encouraging community use.
At that time, the 2012 Aquatics Centre did not contain movable floors or booms and her concern was the impact this would have on the potential for community use and the broader legacy benefits, of the pool, post 2012.
Leeds City Council provided Sport England with background information and costing that have been used in negotiations between Sport England, the London Development Agency and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). The result is that floors and booms have now been added into the design for the 2012 Aquatics Centre.
The team were very impressed with the design and operation of the Leeds Aquatics Centre. They were very interested in the approach that the City Council had taken to ensure that the new facility in Leeds would meet the needs of users whether they are swimmers or divers aspiring to be in the Great Britain team for London 2012 or community users who want to enjoy and benefit from the opportunities that the Aquatics Centre at the John Charles Centre for Sport can provide.