Last week residents of Dagenham came together for the opening of a brand new 50-metre Olympic length swimming pool at Becontree Heath Leisure Centre.
They were joined by former Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington and other Olympic and Commonwealth Games heroes from the world of swimming including Joanne Jackson, Steve Parry, James Goddard, Grant Turner and Craig Figes to celebrate the opening of the new pool.
Large numbers of residents of the borough came along throughout the weekend to meet their Olympic heroes and try out the new pool, with a number of free activities taking place throughout the opening weekend including group exercise classes, fitness challenges and family swims with inflatables.
Two-time Olympic champion, Rebecca Adlington said: “It’s fantastic when pools are opening, especially facilities like this as it’s the first of its kind and shows you don’t need renovation projects that cost a fortune.
“What they’ve done here is absolutely ground-breaking and could change the sport massively.”
The state of the art pool is the first of its kind, not only in the UK but in the world, with the modular format of the build steel lined and created above ground level which made installation faster and more cost effective.
The pool will help provide more spaces on Everyone Active’s swimming lesson programme, while swimming clubs will also be able to train in the Olympic regulation length pool.
Councillor Maureen Worby, Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration said: “The health and wellbeing of our residents is a key priority for Barking and Dagenham council.
“The new pool at Becontree will help our residents to get more active by providing more time for the public to go swimming and offering more swimming lessons to children and young people in the borough.
“It will also make a big difference for local swimming clubs in the area, giving them better training facilities and making Barking and Dagenham a venue for local and regional swimming galas”.
