No date for completion of £18 million Ripon leisure scheme

Last updated Mar 21, 2024

It is now nine months since ground stabilisation work costing £3.5 million began at Ripon Leisure Centre, but North Yorkshire Council (NYC) remains unable to give an opening date for the refurbished building.

The original £10.2 million contract awarded in November 2019 by the now-defunct Harrogate Borough Council to construction company Willmott Dixon, was designed to give Ripon a new six-lane swimming pool attached to a fully revamped and equipped leisure centre building which opened in 1995.

Work began at the Camp Close site off Dallamires Lane in November 2019 and was scheduled to last 17 months.

Equipment used in ground stabilisation pictured at the site yesterday morning (Wednesday)

The total project also includes the provision of a new children’s playground and landscaping and restoration of playing fields that were donated in 1948 by Alderman Cyril Tetley Wade ‘for the benefit of the young people of the city.’

Rising costs

The running total for completion of the project has risen to £18 million and to date the pool at the Jack Laugher Leisure & Wellness Centre, which opened behind schedule in March 2022 and the playground that opened in February 2022, have been delivered.

A temporary gym has been in place on the car park in front of the Jack Laugher Leisure & Wellness Centre since last April. The children’s playground opened in February 2022

A year ago, a temporary gym costing £300,000 was installed on the centre car park and during the period that ground stabilisation works have remained ongoing, gym members have been attending spin classes at Hugh Ripley Hall.

During the four years since it was launched, the Stray Ferret has kept a close watch on the leisure scheme and has sought regular updates, initially from Harrogate Borough Council and from North Yorkshire Council since April 2023, when the unitary authority took over responsibility for the problematic project.

The questions we asked

On March 11 we asked the council the following six questions:

What is holding up the work?
Have additional issues arisen since NYC’s last update to the Stray Ferret in January
Have additional costs been incurred (on top of the £3.5 million allocated for ground stabilisation?
If yes, how much?
Is there an opening date in prospect for the fully refurbished leisure centre building
What progress has been made on the restoration of the children’s playing fields?

A reply received from a council spokesperson three days later said:

“We have nothing further to add to the last statement.”

In that statement, issued by the council on January 16, it said:

“The nature of the work is complex and is under constant review, dates will be announced to key partners when they are confirmed.

“Refurbishment work to the leisure centre began at the same time as the construction of the new swimming pool building, however it was paused when the extent of ground remediation work was identified. Refurbishment work will therefore be finished after completion of the ground stabilisation works.”

In October, the Stray Ferret reported that the leisure centre work had been temporarily paused after ground movement was detected in the 1995 building,

The North Yorkshire spokesperson said in the January statement that since October “no further issues have come to light”.

Working ‘within the confines of the existing budget’

On the question about potential additional costs for the delayed project, the NYC spokesperson stated:

“We continue to work within the confines of the existing budget.”

The Stray Ferret also asked about restoration of the children’s playing fields and football pitch, which have been no go areas for more than four years.

We were told: