Richmond students could soon be making waves in the sporting world after a bid to build an Olympic swimming pool in Ham was conditionally accepted.

Residents banded together to apply for an Olympic pool to be located at Grey Court school as a lasting sporting legacy of the London Games.

Grey Court headteacher Maggie Bailey said said: “We are really delighted to have been offered this fantastic pool, which will be for the entire community. However, we need to work hard to meet the conditions laid down by the Government.”

In keeping with Grey Court’s green reputation, the school already has its own allotments, chickens and solar panelling, and its bid to the Olympic executive committee for the pool was also an eco-friendly one.

If the community meets strict funding targets needed for the 25m, four lane training pool, it will be geothermally heated. This will save heating costs, generate revenue under the Renewable Heat Incentive and make the pool a pioneer for how leisure facilities can be built and run in an eco-friendly way.

Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith is a strong supporter of the project.

He said: “I am enormously impressed that the community has reached this stage, and although there are conditions to meet, I have every belief that they will be met [and] if so, the whole community will benefit hugely.”

An outline planning application for the pool has been submitted to Richmond Council and if successful, and funding targets are achieved, construction on the pool could begin as early as 2013. An initial £100,000 of funding has already been awarded to the project by the London marathon charitable trust and British Gas.

Lead architect on the project, Richard Woolf of McDaniel Woolf architects, said it was an exciting project.

He said: “We are delighted to have been appointed as the local architects to deal with local issues, with my children at the school it is nice to be able to help plan for the school’s future.

“We are very aware of the sensitive nature around the avenues [by the school], and Grey Court, and Ham and we hope through our commission to be as creative and sensitive to this as possible.”