Ripon councillors are calling on North Yorkshire County Council not to sanction spending £3.5 million on remediation works at the city’s leisure centre.
The city council believes that other options should be fully investigated, including building a new centre at a different location where there are stable ground conditions.
The ground floor of the leisure centre has stayed closed due to safety concerns and Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) is to install a temporary gym on the site.
The call from city councillors comes after a report by engineering firm Stantec into the ground stability issues affecting the existing centre’s foundations.
The report, supplied following a Freedom of Information Request made to HBC, ruled out a new location for the centre, but Independent city council leader Andrew Williams, who was elected to NYCC in May, said:
“They (HBC) are blindly and belligerently pouring money into propping up a centre that is nearly 30 years old and there is no guarantee that more funding won’t be needed after remediation works begin.”
He added:
“These works would take the total spending on this project to £18 million – some £8 million above the original budget – and they can’t continue ploughing money into this site, with its known history of ground stability issues, including a sinkhole that opened up on the leisure centre car park in 2018.
“Instead of throwing good money after bad, we need to call on North Yorkshire Council, who will take over responsibility from April, to put an end to this additional spending and look for a suitable location for a new leisure centre to be built on sound land.”
As part of the devolution process, any major financial decisions by HBC will need to be approved by NYCC’s executive. Permission needs to be given for capital projects costing £1 million and above.
A report to a meeting of HBC’s cabinet in August said the authority had made “every effort to provide an accurate estimate” of the costs of the remediation works but added these could rise further once the ground stability works begin.
Response from Harrogate Borough Council
A spokesperson for Harrogate Borough Council, said:
“Building a new leisure centre at another site in Ripon would cost a significant amount of money and would result in two separate facilities to maintain, two sets of running and staffing costs, for example.
“It would also involve purchasing land in a suitable location that we don’t currently have, going through the planning application process and disposing of the existing building safely, all of which would take time and a considerable amount of money. And there is no guarantee that a different site wouldn’t have similar ground conditions.
“Co-location of both wet and dry leisure facilities is also important for increasing and sustaining participation in exercise, as well as optimising revenue and cost recovery.
“The new gym combined with the pool on one site is proving to be extremely popular, and will be further complimented by two new activity studios, sports hall, a spin studio as well as meeting facilities.”
The spokesperson, added:
“Our consulting engineer has advised that a do-nothing approach is not advised. And although there is no immediate change in the geological risk profile to the building – that was originally built in 1995 and has provided sport and leisure services for more than 25 years – it is recommended that ground stabilisation works are undertaken to ensure people in Ripon can keep fit and active for years to come.”
