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26
Nov 2024
Completion date revealed for work on Ripon's £20 million leisure scheme
Refurbishment work at Ripon's Dallamires Lane leisure centre will not be completed until next summer.
This has been confirmed in an update report to the executive of North Yorkshire Council, which stated:
The Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre, Ripon ground stabilisation works were completed in mid-September 2024.
Following this, validation and remedial works will be completed ahead of recommencing the ground floor refurbishment works to the leisure centre with completion expected by the end of June 2025.
Delays and cost increases
When North Yorkshire Council inherited the scheme from the now-defunct Harrogate Borough Council in April of last year, the overall cost for delivery of the new pool, along with refurbishment of the existing leisure centre, installation of a children's playground, reinstatement of playing fields and associated landscaping, had increased by almost £8 million.
The original budget for the entire project awarded to construction company Willmott Dixon in November 2019, was £10.2 million and it was scheduled for completion in 17 months.
But delays and cost hikes followed as various issues, including a sinkhole, were discovered on site.
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The sinkhole was discovered in September 2020, near the old leisure centre entrance and following detailed ground investigations carried out by engineering firm Stantec, a Harrogate Borough Council report in August 2022 revealed that £3.5 million was required for remediation works, taking the running total for spending on the scheme to £18 million.
But that figure rose again in May 2024, when the North Yorkshire Council execuitve, made up of senior Conservative councillors, approved additional funding of £2 million to pay for more grout to be pumped into the void beneath the leisure centre building.
The six-lane swimming pool at the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre opened in March 2022.
The temporary gym installed at a cost of £300,000 in the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre car park in April 2023 will remain in use until the refurbished 1995 building is ready to open.
In the meantime, spin classes will continue to be held at the Hugh Ripley Hall, which is managed by Ripon City Council.
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