A COMMUNITY swimming pool has been revealed as one of the first beneficiaries of the new Teignbridge Lottery.

Bovey Tracey Swimming Pool has been accepted as one of the good causes for the new lottery which was officially launched last month.

During the summer the pool revealed it was one of many sports and activities centres across Teignbridge which would be struggling in the wake of huge increases in fuel bills.

Lifeguard and club member John Steer said at the time that the pool’s energy costs had more than doubled from £12,000 last year to nearly £27,000 for 2022.

A spokesman for the pool committee said: ‘This could be a brilliant way for the pool to have a regular income stream to help towards our increased energy costs. Of course, the more people who sign up and choose us as their charity, the more money we will raise. We also need a minimum of 50 people to sign up before December to remain as one of the charities.

‘If you would like to enter and help the pool, please go to the Teignbridge Council website and click on the link  for the Teignbridge Lottery For Communities and choose us as your charity.’

Fundraising and grants from the Bovey Tracey Almshouse Trust have helped with the bills, and pool secretary Vanessa Steer was grateful for all the help the pool is getting.

She said: ‘We are doing all we can to keep energy bills down. We already have some solar panels and will eventually use all available space. They should help power the buildings, but the pool is heated by gas. This year the gas bill went up by £8,000 and next year we’re looking at a further £20,000 increase.

‘Sadly though, we don’t have enough room to install enough solar panels to power a ground source heat pump.’

Rising costs forced the open air pool to shorten its summer season and the regular Christmas period opening has been mothballed, for this year at least.

Vanessa said: We’re hoping the lottery funding will provide us with an annual income stream. If we could get just 200 lottery subscribers that could bring in £5,000 per year!’

The district council said: ‘The first draw will be on December 3, and tickets for the lottery cost £1 a week. Each ticket has a one in 50 chance to win a prize each week, with a top prize of £25,000. That’s a better chance of winning than the National Lottery or the Health Lottery.’

From every £1 entry fee, 60 will go local good causes. More information is available at the Teignbridge website.