Stunning drone footage of community swimming pool taking shape

Progress on our major work to construct a modern 25 metre, 6-lane community pool at Palmer Park has been captured in drone footage on New Year’s Day.

The stunning footage captured during the morning sunrise, shows the latest progress on the Palmer Park construction site, with the outline of the new pool and the steel frame of the new entrance, reception and information hub clearly visible.

Watch the drone footage here: 

You can also view some breath-taking aerial photos from the site here.

Construction of the new pool is the next key milestone in our £40M investment in modern leisure facilities for the town, including delivering brand new pools, a modern leisure centre and improvements to existing leisure facilities, by spring 2023.

The new community pool and facilities will open to the public in late 2022. At Palmer Park, in addition to the refurbishment of the existing stadium building, there will be:

• A new 25 metre, 6-lane community pool;
• A 100-station gym;
• An activity zone for children with party rooms;
• And a new café and information hub.

Following the construction of the pool frame, the next major event will be the installation of the new pool roof and the replacement of the existing stadium roof. This work will take place from the end of April 2022.

The roof replacement work will necessitate the unavoidable closure of the gym and indoor sports facilities for around 6 months, until autumn 2022.

The outside stadium, including the track, athletics and velodrome will continue to be in use. Temporary toilet facilities will be provided for the duration of the closure for use by stadium users and members of the public.

All gym users will be able to access alternative fitness facilities at other GLL run Reading leisure centres during this period.

Work started on the Rivermead site on 31 August. The new Rivermead facilities will include a 25m 8-lane competition pool alongside a combined teaching and diving pool, due to open in spring 2023.

Work is also underway to improve the facilities at South Reading Leisure Centre, with improvement works also planned at Meadway in west Reading, starting soon.

For regular updates on the leisure project visit www.better.org.uk/new-reading-leisure  or follow us on social media @ReadingCouncil Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or GLL at @Better_Reading