In Watford, Pellikaan completed a £ 22m contract for two leisure centres at Central and Woodside. At Central, the existing swimming pool centre in the town centre has been replaced by a new sports centre. This encompasses a sports hall, 25 meter pool, children’s pool, climbing wall, crèche, café, fitness and dance.

At Woodside, Pellikaan have redeveloped the 30-year-old leisure centre and added an extension for ‘wet’ facilities including a swimming pool with moveable floor, learner pool and sauna. The existing sports hall was refurbished, creating a warm atmosphere, high durability and excellent acoustic performance. Other facilities include health and fitness, café, treatment rooms, artificial pitch, dance studio, crèche, squash courts etc.

Sustainability was a key consideration in the design. This resulted in the international Green Apple Award. The measures implemented ensure lower carbon emission rates as well as more economical running costs. Some examples are insulation levels, a solar thermal array, rainwater recycling and heat recovery systems. The extended ground source heat pump system, using boreholes of approx. 100 metres deep, enables use of the natural heat of the earth. Furthermore, heat loss and emission of carbon dioxide by air leakage were reduced significantly.

Cate Hall, Corporate Director at Watford Borough Council: “Great partnership working enabled us to deliver very high quality buildings that everyone is proud of, which are on time and on budget.”