A number of you specified Sports Centre Facilities relevant questions during the recent “Ask the VC” consultation.
Your Activities Officer, Jasmine has been in touch with the Sports Centre to see whether she could get to the bottom of a few things and collate a response to the questions you’ve been asking.
Below is the response she has received from Darren, the Sports Centre General Manager – it all looks positive and I hope it brightens up your day despite the weather!
All Weather Pitch (AWP)
The AWP went out to Tender earlier in the year and subsequently has been awarded to the contractor Agripower. They will be replacing the pitch carpet, the shock pad might also need replacing but is unknown until the existing carpet comes up so we have contingencies for this also. They will repair all perimeter fencing and replace the ball stop netting behind the goals. Timelines for these works to be completed are between 29th May and 31st July but is heavily dependent on the weather, however the project will be more than ready for the new academic year.
We also purchased new hockey goals last August at a cost of £6K.
Sports Cage Floor
Specification for a new floor is currently being written in partnership between the Sports Centre and EDD. The aim is to replace the existing flooring with a respectable multi-sport competition flooring (BS EN 14904). The timeline for these works are planned during the month of July but these are only pencilled in due to the fact we have not awarded a contractor through the tender process yet. This should also be ready for the new academic year.
Squash Courts
This is a major problem that has been with the Estates department for a number of years, at present the external path running adjacent to the Cage is above the height of the squash court (internally the court is below ground level). Due to inadequate drainage at the point at which the water/rain hits and disperses away from the path is resulting in it seeping through the external walls of the Cage thus impacting directly with the internal walls. At present we are unable to offer any solution other than to continue practise in the Cage and play fixtures in Plascrug.
Sports Facilities in general:
Gym Areas
We have recently invested £250K into the gym facilities replacing all existing gym equipment, each gym layout has been modified and structured to be more user friendly and less intimidating to our students.
Pool Changing Rooms
Works to replace the existing flooring in the pool changing rooms will be completed during the month of June.
Air handling
We have recently spent £13K on consultancy fees to look at the air handling for the main Sports Hall, Dance Room and Gym areas which are also areas students are requesting to be improved.
I hope you can see that we are also working extremely hard to ensure that our students have the very best experience and satisfaction possible with the constraints that we are all currently working with. Add the hugely discounted Platinum membership available for next semester to access the Sports Centre hopefully adds further value to Uni life for all.