The Friends of Perranporth Pool have turned to crowdfunding to bring their heated pool project to life. Organisers are reaching out to the community to raise the remaining £110,000 of the £250,000 they need to upgrade the dilapidated outdoor pool into a heated indoor swimming pool.

The team behind the project, made up of volunteers including teachers, parents and children, are working with sponsors energyshare, and local installer Natural Generation, to raise the money needed to install solar panels and two air source heat pumps.

The project, which is expected to benefit over 9,000 people, will enable the pool to be run sustainably, significantly reducing the costs of swimming lessons, effectively passing on the benefits to the local community.

Project coordinator, Rebecca Mathews, creator said: “This project will really make a huge difference to the people of Perranporth and the surrounding area. The team believes in the power of Crowdfunder to bring together sponsors like energyshare, existing funds and the local community to turn this idea into reality.

"Creation of the pool will bring much needed access to swimming for local people, providing lessons, recreation and fitness and we know crowdfunding can help make this happen. We have had massive community support for this project, demonstrating how much a swimming pool is needed in this area and we believe that the whole community will benefit from this amazing facility.”

A recent study showed that only a third of Perranporth’s youth had regular swimming lessons and that 60 per cent of the girls that didn’t have swimming lessons had no participation in any other form of sport. The community pool project aims to change this by addressing the root cause of the problem and create an open access to the pool for future generations.

The new facility, which was provided with technical support and advice by Perranporth’s Natural Generation, aims to ensure mums with younger children will have somewhere affordable to exercise locally, it is also expected to attract teenagers who don’t currently participate in any sporting activity.

Mark Holmes, energyshare project manager, said: “It’s great to be able to launch our first project with Natural Generation, which demonstrates what can be accomplished when a community comes together, with the support of local businesses. This is an example of how the hard work of the local community to develop vital facilities for their health and wellbeing can be supported by the income received from the generation of renewable energy for years to come.”

To support the campaign go to: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/perranporthpool.