Work is nearly complete on installing solar panels at the Aspire leisure centre in Stanmore to keep the swimming pool warm for disabled users.

The panels will use energy from the sun to reduce electricity bills by almost a third, paid for by Harrow Council with £167,000 of government funding.

They will save an estimated £26,000 a year while avoiding 28 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Harrow East MP Bob Blackman visited the centre in Wood Lane to see the rooftop panels being put in.

“These panels will save 30 per cent on electricity bills,” he said. “Installing them was possible through a grant by the previous government that will pay for themselves within five years.”

My Power UK solar energy company is erecting 364 panels and two 60kw inverters, estimated to generate nearly 140,000 killerwatts in the first year.

Leisure centre manager Dean Tearle said: “This is helping keep our energy costs as low as possible and means we can maintain a warm swimming pool for disabled and non-disabled users.”

Aspire was the first fully-accessible leisure centre in Europe for disabled users, with its ramps for those in wheelchairs to use the pool.