The 25m fitness pool at Larkfield Leisure Centre is now heated by air source heat pumps, not gas, after £1.5m in grants. The borough's busiest pool had 189,000 swims in 2025.

The 25-metre fitness pool at Larkfield Leisure Centre no longer depends on gas boilers. New air source heat pumps now heat the water and the pool hall.

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council announced that the installation was complete and working. It is the main part of a £2 million decarbonisation programme at the centre, which tmactive runs for the council. (Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, 15 October 2026)

Swimmers will not notice much. Cllr Robin Betts, the cabinet member for housing, environment and economy, called it “a change that may not be visible to users”. The council says the switch could save hundreds of tonnes of carbon emissions a year, but it has not published a figure.

Who paid for it

Most of the money came from outside the council:

  • £1,164,760 from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, a government fund run by Salix Finance for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
  • £370,000 from Sport England
  • an unstated amount from the Business Rates Pool Shared Growth Fund, which supports projects in Kent

The two grants with published figures come to £1,534,760 between them. The council has not said how much of the £2 million programme it paid itself.

The funding also paid for LED lighting and more solar panels. The centre now has 600 panels, installed over the last two years. With the heat pumps running on electricity, more of what the panels generate can be used on site.

Four white air source heat pump units with large round fans on top, inside a green metal fenced compound beside a grass bank at Larkfield Leisure Centre
The four new air source heat pump units at Larkfield Leisure Centre. Photo: Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council

The borough’s busiest pool

The council’s figures show how much the centre is used:

  • 189,000 visits to swim in 2025, the most of any pool in the borough
  • 738,000 visits to the leisure centre in total

The fitness pool is used for school swimming lessons, club training and public swims. The leisure pool, with its flumes and lazy river, is a separate pool.

Emma Wood, chief executive of tmactive, said the fitness pool was “incredibly popular with the local community”, and that the new system “is now installed and operational”.

Next: Tonbridge

The council calls this part of a wider programme across its leisure buildings. Tonbridge Swimming Pool had 140 solar panels fitted in 2024. The new Angel Centre, which councillors approved on 20 October, is planned as a low-carbon building. What the Angel Centre plans include.

What it means for you

  • Swimming at Larkfield: nothing changes for you. The council has not announced any closure linked to the work, and says the system is already running.
  • Paying for it: the bulk of the cost came from national grants, not council tax. The council’s own share is not published.
  • Times and prices: check tmactive’s Larkfield page for the swimming timetable.