Only 12 months after starting works on Oxford City Council’s Decarbonisation project, CMB have now completed works on 4 of the City’s Community Leisure Centres.

In 2021, Oxford City Council secured £10.9M in funding (of the £14M project) thanks to the Governments Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, with additional funding coming from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Salix Finance.

The funding was awarded to decarbonise the Councils 4 leisure centres in order to enhance their sustainability and eco-friendly initiatives and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that the centres currently emit as well as lower energy bills. By the end of the project, the scheme aims to have reduced the leisure centres environmental detriment by half, through swapping to green energy alternatives such as upgrading gas boilers to heat pumps that transfer heat from the air or water. Councillor Tom Hayes, Cabinet Member for Zero Carbon Oxford and Green Transport, added: “Leisure centres make up 40% of the Council’s carbon footprint, and in order to achieve a Zero Carbon Council by 2030, we need to reduce our own emissions."

CMB were awarded the £4.5 Million Mechanical contract for these projects by Wilmott Dixon, which saw us oversee the mechanical works on Ferry Leisure Centre, Barton Leisure Centre, Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre and Hinksey Leisure Centre.

CMB worked with Wilmott Dixon and Westec Engineering to create a plan for the 4 sites, after they were designed by Hoare Lea & Partners. The projects have been delivered on time, ensuring smooth operations and the best possible client satisfaction.

The community of Oxford were widely consulted before and during the operations process with work being carried out in phases on the centres so that members had access to other sites if their local site closed, ensuring minimum disruption. We were even stopped by some local members during our recent visit to one of the centres where they highly praised the works that had been done and the minimal disruptions that they had faced during this time.

CMB are proud to have brought this green energy project to life supporting Oxford Council’s aim to become zero carbon by 2030 and will continue to take a movement into sustainability with upcoming projects elsewhere going forward.