MOUNT Kelly’s Olympic Legacy Pool in Tavistock has been shortlisted for two prestigious awards.

The new Mount Kelly Swim Centre has been shortlisted for education project of the year in the 2017 Michelmores Property Awards, which celebrate outstanding property and construction projects in Bristol, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Cornwall, and has also been shortlisted for the 2017 local authority building control (LABC) building excellence awards, which represents all local authority building control teams in England and Wales.

The 50m olympic legacy pool, one of only three of its kind in the South West, was built in partnership with Sport England through National Lottery funding and opened in September 2016.

Mount Kelly is renowned for its performance swimming programme and has trained more than 60 international swimmers, of which 19 have competed at the Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth games.

The pool is also driving more community activity in the sport. With 60% of the available time in the water given over to the wider community, it has delivered a significant increase in the numbers participating in ‘Learn to Swim’ for both children and adults at beginners and improvers level. The project opened a world class training facility to the community, encouraging greater participation in swimming across the region and enabling more people to train to international standards.

Richard Smith, commercial director at Mount Kelly, said: ‘This project has been transformational for Mount Kelly. It represented a significant investment on our part and would not have been possible without the support of Sport England. The actual construction took 12 months and required that we work very closely with the designing architects Mitchell Architects of Plymouth and the main contractors Devon Contractors of Exeter.

‘The result is a superb, state-of-the-art facility that is now benefiting a very wide audience. Of course it is extremely gratifying that the project has been recognised through these two prestigious award schemes.’

This year’s Michelmores Property Awards saw the introduction of five new award categories, including education project of the year, commercial project of the year, public project of the year, leisure and hospitality project of the year, and the John Laurence special contribution award.

Emma Honey, head of property at Michelmores, said: ‘Yet again we have received an extremely high quality of entries, spread across many sectors. This year’s shortlist shows the South West property and construction industry as a real powerhouse of innovation, and is a signal of exciting times ahead.’

Now in their 15th year, the annual awards showcase and celebrate the best of the South West’s property and construction industry.

The winners will be announced at an awards dinner on Thursday, June 15 at the University of Exeter, presented by comedian and actor Marcus Brigstocke.