New burner for the Lido - now up and running
Following a period of uncertainty, the lido now has a new burner to fire up the heating at Sandford Parks Lido. The boiler failed just before the longest ever season which began on the 9th April. The normal water temperature would have been 25c in the main pool and 30c in the children’s, but they opened with 15c.
The new burner will set the charity back £15,000 at a time when we were hoping to start fundraising for an upgrade for the changing facilities.
Julie Sargent Business Executive said "First of all we’d like to say a big thank you to all our valued customers for their patience and to all the companies and individuals who have come forward to offer their experience and knowledge on our boiler system during this challenging time.
We have received huge support, goodwill and understanding from our members and we would like to thank everyone for their patience.
Every precaution has been taken to ensure we have received advice from the right people and companies to ensure the correct solution has been found to protect the lido for the long term".
Initially Sandford Parks Lido received 3 quotations for a replacement burner which involved it’s manufacture and delivery from Germany. Unfortunately this delay impacted on the project’s delivery time which was beyond what the Lido’s board of trustees considered acceptable for their customers.
At this point the locally situated Mark Holland Group came forward and were able to specify a burner which was available in the UK and they made a commitment to act very quickly to ensure it was delivered, fitted and commissioned by Tuesday 26th April.
The new burner will take approximately 3 days to heat the 500,000 gallons of main swimming pool water up to its normal operating temperature, but the 18,000 gallons contained in the children swimming pools will heat up over a much shorter time period.
The lido and its café have remained open throughout this period, but are delighted to be able to offer heated swimming in good time for the bank holiday and the Mira Showers Triathlon.
Julie Sargent went on to say "our charity is self-financing and has invested well over two million pounds in to Sandford Parks Lido over the last twenty years. Sandford Parks Lido is the very best and most significant lido of its kind in Britain and as such it adds great value to Cheltenham in terms of tourism and prestige. When something like this happens it is important to act quickly but to also make the correct financial decisions which act in the best interests of our customers over both the shorter and longer term.
We have been overwhelmed by the generosity or our members who have donated towards the replacement cost of the burner. I feel this is a testament to how important the lido is to our members and we would like to publically thank them all for their generosity".
Explore Gloucestershire
27 April 2016
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