Dive training lake will create top-class facility
Plans to build a £500,000 new dive training lake in Swanwick will create one of the leading facilities anywhere in the south and provide eight new jobs for the area.
Andark director Andy Goddard at the field where he is planning to build a dive training lake
Specialist diving company Andark in Bridge Road, will create two full-time positions and six part-time jobs if the new seven metre deep lake on the company’s land off Oslands Lane gets the go-ahead.
The 70m by 45m lake will primarily be used by Andark students, but will also be available to for public bookings.
Andark director Andy Goddard said: “We want to create a purpose-built diving training facility for students to learn the skills to go out in the sea.
“We’ve been trying for three years and we’ve gone to appeal a lot. I could scream – it’s unbelievable really.”
Up to 50 people at any one time will be able to use the lake, with the maximum set at 99 people in total for each day.
Mr Goddard added: “The minute our facility opens it will significantly improve the quality of our training and it will cut our carbon foot print.”
They currently have to travel to lakes in Wraysbury, near Heathrow Airport, and Vobster Quay in Somerset to use other training facilities.
An impression of the proposed new building, buried on three sides, in front of the lake
The lake will be dug out and lined. An adjacent building, which will include changing rooms, an equipment room and a sealed room to run a silent air compressor, will be buried on three sides and have a grass roof.
The facility, which will use solar panels for electricity and water heating, will be open daily from 8am to 6pm with no more than two evening sessions a week – on weekdays only – finishing at 9.30pm.
A small car park at the proposed site will cater for two mini-buses and a disabled car, while an electric vehicle will transport divers’ kit to the lake – at a maximum of 12 movements a day.
“I strongly believe the land that this will be on is derelict and it could be the spur to improve the whole of the area,” said Mr Goddard.
“Fareham Borough Council has been excellent and very supportive of it.”
The centre first applied to Fareham Borough Council for planning permission for the facility three years ago, but it was refused.
Executive Leader of Fareham Borough Council and councillor for the Sarisbury ward, Seán Woodward, said: “Andy Goddard has put in a fresh application. They have applied once before for it and it was refused.”
How the lake would look when seen from above
It was refused by an appeal inspector because there was a concern to the impact traffic could have to Oslands Lane, a residential gravel track leading between the Bridge Road site and the proposed training facility, said Cllr Woodward.
“That was the only reason the appeal inspector refused it and the new proposal limits it to 12 movements a day, which means people will have to park in the existing premises and walk to the training lake or use golf-buggy-type vehicles to get there,” said Cllr Woodward.
“If he’s overcome this he’ll get permission and if not then he won’t. If it’s deemed to be the right location then he’ll get his permission. I can’t second guess what the planning committee may or may not do.”
No date has yet been set for the application to come to the planning committee.
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