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14
Apr 2021
£34,000: the cost of heating closed Ripon pool
Harrogate Borough Council has spent £34,000 heating Ripon Spa Baths since it closed in March last year, the Stray Ferret has discovered.
The pool is one of three in the Harrogate district, along with Knaresborough and Starbeck, to remain closed after leisure facilities were allowed to reopen on Monday.
The council has now disclosed the cost of keeping the water warm and the plant in operational condition during the last year of closure to Andrew Williams, the leader of Ripon City Council.
Councillor Williams said it would be "council taxpayer money down the drain if the baths are not reopened" immediately.
He said:
Read more:
- The heat is on to reopen Ripon baths
- Call for urgent action to safeguard future of historic Ripon building
The Grade II Listed Spa Baths was deemed 'surplus to requirements' in February and put on the market.
Cllr Williams, the Mayor of Ripon Councillor Eamon Parkin and representatives of Ripon Civic Society, found the pool in operational condition last month when they were shown around the building by selling agents Sanderson Weatherall.
This prompted the senior councillors, along with other city councillors, to call for reopening from 12 April, when lockdown restrictions were lifted.
But that date has passed and the pool remains closed.
A spokeswoman for Harrogate Borough Council said reopening Spa Baths when lockdown restrictions changed on Monday was not possible because sport and leisure staff have been redeployed to other services.
The spokeswoman added:
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