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£7m Aqualibrium planned for Campbeltown
Argyll and Bute Council is to open a £7m new-build leisure facility in Campbeltown in Scotland this summer, which will include a fitness suite, a swimming pool, exhibition space, a library and a restaurant.
Aqualibrium – which at 4,700sq m (50,600sq ft) will be the council’s largest leisure centre – will feature a 25m, six lane swimming pool with moveable floor, which will replace the district’s former swimming facility which closed six years ago.
It will also have a relaxation suite, crèche and soft play area, conference and catering facilities, a visitor gallery, internet and IT services and a reading room.
Funding has come a variety of partners alongside the council, including the European Regional Development Fund, sportscotland, the Big Lottery Fund and Argyll and the Islands Enterprise.
The centre has been designed by Glasgow-based Page and Park, after the group won a competition organised by the Royal Incorporation of Architects.
The building is designed to be energy efficient and environmentally friendly, with 20cm thick insulated walls, an aluminium-covered roof, a Biomass boiler, which is fuelled by environmentally sustainable woodchips and a 20,000 litre (4,400 gallons) tank to collect rainwater for recycling.
Marius Haysamer, facilities manager, said: “The best way to describe Aqualibrium is that it will inspire the communities it serves to get involved and to care about their health, well-being and culture, as well as helping them to achieve the right balance.”
The council has recently signed a contract with Life Fitness to kit out the 25-station gym, which aims to attract around 500 members. The company will also supply resistance equipment as part of the refurbishment of the gym at the council’s existing site, Riverside in Dunoon. Details: www.argyll-bute.gov.uk