National contractor Willmott Dixon was awarded the contract to develop Bingham Arena and Enterprise Centre last year on behalf Rushcliffe Borough Council.

The £16m scheme is being part funded from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The new two-storey leisure centre will include a carbon efficient plant to power its 25-metre, six-lane swimming pool with spectator seating and teaching pool. Other facilities will include a gym, studios and adjacent community hall with staging and seating. The adjacent Bingham Enterprise Centre will provide 12 self-contained office lets for small and growing businesses over two floors.

The overall development will reduce carbon emissions by 78 per cent compared to other leisure centres in the borough and by 82 per cent for similar office developments.

Willmott Dixon’s Energy Synergy service is being included in the project to address the performance gap. Information on how the building will be used can help to predict and model the operational energy for the buildings. This will account for regulated and unregulated energy to gain a more accurate prediction of the building's operational energy. This will therefore reduce the gap between predicted and actual energy use.

“With ambitions to secure a target BREEAM rating of Very Good, a low carbon technologies assessment has also been undertaken to ensure the chosen design considered the most suitable renewable energy source to reduce regulated carbon emissions,” said Nick Heath, director of delivery at Willmott Dixon

“There will be photovoltaics on the roof of the office building and there are combined heat and power engines being used to power the pool. As part of the Energy Synergy process, equipment will be monitored and altered once the buildings are in use, to be more energy efficient. There will also be sustainable transport solutions such as cycle facilities, EV charging points and the project’s location allows use of the train station and local bus routes. We are also using a Myrtha pool, which is a steel-framed as opposed to concrete, which has low carbon benefits.”

The leisure centre and community hall will be managed by the council’s existing leisure provider, Parkwood Leisure and subcontracted to Lex Leisure, which has managed the council leisure centres since 2007.

The Bingham Arena and Bingham Enterprise Centre project is expected to complete in May 2022.