Ripon leisure centre work halted after ground movement detectedA £3.5 million scheme to stabilise the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in Ripon has been halted because of new suspected land movement.
Groundwork began in June following the discovery of a “void” beneath the former leisure centre building in the sinkhole-prone area.
Members have had to use a temporary gym in the car park and attend group classes at Hugh Ripley Hall in the city centre while remediation work takes place at the old building.
The new building, which includes a swimming pool, sauna and steam room has remained open.
The new building on the site remains open.
Work was due to finish in spring next year but the latest discovery may jeopardise that — and spark fresh questions about the wisdom of choosing the site and continuing to spend money stabilising the land despite sinkhole fears.
The Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire Council if work had been halted after noticing a lack of activity in recent weeks.
Jo Ireland, the council’s assistant director for culture and leisure, said:
“Our contractors have temporarily paused groundworks at the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre as a precautionary measure while they investigate and assess signs of movement that have appeared in the internal blockwork of the existing building.
“A specialist engineer has advised the movement is predominantly aesthetic with no grounds for concern over the safety of the building.
“We will be installing a monitoring system on site in the next few days to detect any further movement that may occur. This system will give us the data we need to allow us to restart work later this month.
“We would only need to pause work again should the monitoring system detect additional significant movement, at which point further assessment of the situation would take place.”
‘Throwing good money after bad’
In October last year Ripon City Council leader Andrew Williams, who also represents Ripon Minster and Moorside on North Yorkshire Council, said it was time to stop “throwing good money after bad” and and “look for a suitable location for a new leisure centre to be built on sound land”.
He accused the now-defunct Harrogate Borough Council, which took the decision to build on the site, of “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”.
Cllr Williams 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.”
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‘Our leisure centres will be the envy of North Yorkshire’Leisure centre visitors in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough have been as likely to wear hard hats as swimming costumes in recent years.
All three sites have undergone lengthy projects to refurbish or replace council-owned facilities.
Those in charge probably wish they too had hard hats to protect themselves from the flak caused by soaring costs and delays. The nine-month delay refurbishing the former Harrogate Hydro meant it reopened two days before the end of the school summer holidays.
But finally there is something to cheer.
The new Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre has already attracted almost 2,000 members. It has an eight-lane pool and diving boards, a well-equipped gym twice the size of its previous incarnation and three plush exercise studios.
The pool at Harrogate.
One of three studios at Harrogate.
Elsewhere, the partially-open Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre will eventually provide Ripon with a gym and pool on the same site; Knaresborough is weeks away from a new leisure centre and the gym at Pateley Bridge has been refurbished.
Mark Tweedie, managing director of Brimhams Active, the council-owned leisure company that runs the sites, admits the delays have been frustrating but says the benefits of the £46 million investment will soon be felt across the district. He says:
“We will have an estate that will be the envy of North Yorkshire. The investment that’s gone in is unprecedented and significant.”
Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre is certainly a cut above the average council leisure centre.
Monthly membership, which provides unlimited access to gyms, pools and classes at all Brimhams sites, is £44.95. That isn’t as cheap as Pure Gym or Coach Gyms but they haven’t got pools. Gym-only Brimhams membership is £33.
Mr Tweedie argues they also don’t have the same focus on community health as Brimhams, which he says is “reinventing conventional leisure services to a more impactful, person-centred health and wellbeing service”.
To underline this, the rather soulless ‘leisure and wellness’ moniker has been slapped across the names of all its sites.
Sinkhole saga
But although Harrogate is fully open, work continues elsewhere.
Ripon, which was the first to reopen as the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in March last year, appears locked in some sort of sinkhole groundhog day of never-ending work on a “void” beneath the old part of the site, which remains closed.
The Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre
Remedial work is expected to continue until spring. Mr Tweedie says the centre is “looking to reopen the first floor gym in April next year” with the ground floor studio following in summer.
In the meantime, customers will continue to use the temporary gym in the car park and attend group classes at Hugh Ripley Hall in the city centre.
Knaresborough has been less troublesome than Ripon and Harrogate, although it might not seem like it to residents who currently have nowhere in town to swim since the old pool closed a few weeks ago.
How the Knaresborough site will look.
Delays meant the seamless transition from old pool to new site didn’t quite happen, but from November people will have access to a six-lane pool, a fun pool with a slide, plus — for the first time — a studio, gym, steam room and sauna.
While others get upgrades, the beautiful Starbeck Baths feels like the forgotten ugly sister. Rumours abound the Victorian pool will be closed and Mr Tweedie’s comments don’t provide much succour:
“The council is reviewing all its leisure sites at the moment. That’s a natural process because it’s just been formed as a unitary council. It will ask for evidence on how its sites perform and the opportunities for development.”
Starbeck Baths
The audit will be followed by a strategy. Does he think Starbeck Baths will still exist in 10 years?
“That’s a decision for councillors. But what I can say is there has been no feedback to me about planning to close Starbeck.”
Membership figures
Brimhams, which employs the full-time equivalent of about 160 staff and has a turnover of £8.4 million, was set up by Harrogate Borough Council in August 2021. But it has been run by the new North Yorkshire Council since April.
Mr Tweedie says Brimhams “was set up to be commercially effective but also to deliver better health outcomes for the community”.
The council currently provides a £1.7 million annual subsidy, which is due to reduce to £1.2 million when the new centres are complete.
The early commercial signs at Harrogate are encouraging. Membership was 600 when the Hydro closed. The new site has 1,800 members — above the 1,750 target for the end of the month.
Ripon, which has less gym competition than Harrogate, has 1,200 members and Nidderdale has 700.
When we last interviewed Mr Tweedie staff shortages was a huge issue but he says this has eased.
Mark Tweedie outside the Harrogate site.
Brimhams is the only council-owned trading company in North Yorkshire. A private company called Everyone Active provides services in Ryedale and Scarborough; Richmond Leisure Trust runs facilities in Richmond and a charity called Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles oversees sites in Selby. The former district councils in Craven and Hambleton ran leisure sites.
Brimhams is due to take control of Selby’s services, which includes Selby Leisure Centre and Tadcaster Leisure Centre, in September next year.
That decision appeared to be a vote of confidence in the Brimhams model but uncertainty remains about how leisure services will be managed long-term in the county once North Yorkshire Council has completed its review.
But in the short-term, it’s all about growing membership — and getting Knaresborough and Ripon sorted.
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Ripon leisure centre halts price increase due to ongoing workA price increase at the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in Ripon has been halted after complaints from customers prompted a councillor to intervene.
Brimhams Active, the company that runs leisure centres in the Harrogate district on behalf of North Yorkshire Council, recently increased its monthly membership fees.
The council has spent £45 million on upgrading facilities in the district and this week re-opened the former Hydro under the new name Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre.
But the decision to increase the monthly membership fee at Ripon by £6.50 led to a backlash because customers are still using a temporary gym in the car park due to the delayed completion of ground stabilisation work on the old part of the building.
Group exercise classes are being provided offsite at Hugh Ripley Hall.
Work remains ongoing at Ripon leisure centre.
Mark Tweedie, managing director at Brimhams Active, said recent upgrades meant it now offered “significantly improved swim, gym and group exercise opportunities” but membership fees had increased.
He added:
“Although significant investment has been made to deliver a new state of the art leisure facility in Ripon comprising of a new swimming pool, sauna/steam experience and new gym equipment, following customer feedback we have acknowledged that the membership offer remains comparatively limited due to the delayed works to refurbish the ground floor facilities which will include upgraded group exercise studios.
“Therefore, we have committed to holding back on increasing the price of our all-inclusive membership for Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre customers until we are confident the offer is comparable to our other facilities.”
Cllr Andrew Williams
Cllr Andrew Williams, a member of the Conservative and Independents group on North Yorkshire Council who represents Ripon Minster and Moorside, raised residents’ concerns with the council.
Cllr Williams said the council had agreed not to proceed with the £6.50 monthly price hike in Ripon. He said:
“I welcome following my intervention the decision to withdraw plans to increase the fees in September and to revisit the whole situation when the facilities in Ripon are comparable with those elsewhere in the area.
“This is a clear example of the council listening to the concerns raised by residents and seeking to respond positively and swiftly to address their concerns.”
Cllr Williams added:
“Any future decision on the fees at Ripon leisure centre will have to be subject of appropriate consultation.”
‘Fantastic value’
Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre opened this week.
Mr Tweedie said Brimhams Active’s all-inclusive monthly membership fee, which allows unlimited swim, gym and group exercise at all of its facilities, “represents fantastic value which we have been able to achieve despite significantly increased operational costs”. It costs £44.95 a month or £35.95 for concessions at non-Ripon sites.
Besides new facilities in Ripon and Harrogate, the gym at Nidderdale Leisure and Wellness Centre in Pateley Bridge has been refurbished and the new Knaresborough Leisure and Wellness Centre is due to open this year.
Mr Tweedie added:
“We also bringing a new leading edge customer offer for people who take out a Brimhams Active membership. This involves a range of new, more personalised, services designed to support members with a holistic approach to help them achieve their health and wellbeing goals to be their best selves.”
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Stray Ferret backs Killinghall Nomads campaign for Harrogate to honour Rachel DalyKillinghall Nomads Junior Football Club has called for the council to honour former player Rachel Daly.
Harrogate-born Rachel is a key part of the England team that has reached Sunday’s Women’s World Cup final against Spain.
She was also part of the Lionesses side that won the European Championships last summer, and won the Golden Boot for being the Women’s Super League top scorer this year.
Her achievements were completely overlooked by Harrogate Borough Council, which was abolished at the end of March.
The Killinghall club has now called for the new North Yorkshire Council to put that right, preferably by renaming Harrogate Hydro, which is due to reopen next month, as the Rachel Daly Leisure and Wellness Centre.
Mary Beggs-Reid, the club’s media manager, said:
“After all Rachel has achieved, surely the council can name something after her.
“She’s inspired a nation – surely as a town we should honour her?
“The club and town are special to her. We need to show her how special she is to us.”
A huge crowd greeted Daly when she returned to open the club cafe in May.
The Hydro is due to reopen as the Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre. But Harrogate Borough Council set a precedent by renaming Ripon Leisure Centre the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in honour of the Ripon diver’s achievements, including an Olympic gold medal.
Killinghall Nomads want the new council to do similar by renaming the Hydro — which is close to the club’s grounds — after the local superstar.
Daly returned to Killinghall Nomads in May to officially open the Nomads Daly Brew Cafe , which was named after her.
But the club feels it’s time for the council to step-up — and the Stray Ferret agrees.
We are therefore backing the campaign and have asked North Yorkshire Council whether it will support the call to honour Daly — preferably by naming the Hydro after her.
John Plummer, editor of the Stray Ferret, said:
“It’s great that the council honoured Jack Laugher — there is now an overwhelming case to do the same with Rachel Daly.
“What better way to do this than by renaming the leisure centre, which is close to Killinghall Nomads’ grounds, after a local star who has inspired millions of people to get active?”
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Council still working towards sale of historic Ripon Spa BathsNorth Yorkshire Council has said it’s still working towards a sale of Ripon’s historic Spa Baths — almost two years after a preferred bidder was chosen.
The Grade II-listed baths was the last of its kind to open in England but was put on the market by the now-abolished Harrogate Borough Council due to the construction of the new Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre on Dallamires Lanes.
After 117 years of service to Ripon, the baths closed for good in November 2021.
A year earlier in October 2021, Ripon-based Sterne Properties was selected as the preferred bidder by Harrogate Borough Council but a deal had not been struck by the time North Yorkshire Council took over the process in April this year.
Sterne Properties has plans to strip out the building to create a new hospitality facility for the city.
Ripon City Council nominated the baths as an asset of community value which gave it a window to make a bid but council leader Andrew Williams said it could end up being “very complicated and very risky financially” so it backed the Sterne Properties proposals instead.
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North Yorkshire Council declined to say why the process is taking so long and how much the proposed sale was worth when asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
But the baths were previously put up for sale by Harrogate Borough Council in 2008 with a £3.3m price tag. It was later withdrawn following a community campaign.
North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director of resources, Gary Fielding, said:
“Sterne Properties Ltd was selected as the preferred purchaser for this vacant asset because of its positive plans for the future of the former Ripon Spa Baths site.
“We are continuing to work constructively with Sterne Properties to complete the purchase.
“As it is a commercial transaction, the value and terms of the purchase remain confidential.”
£3.5 million remediation work underway at Ripon leisure centre
Remediation works costing £3.5 million are underway at the Ripon leisure centre building which closed in late April.
North Yorkshire Council’s assistant director for culture, leisure, archives and libraries, Jo Ireland, said:
“We can confirm the ground stabilisation works at the former Ripon Leisure Centre have now started.”
Hoardings and fencing have been put in place around the 28 year old leisure centre building.
He added:
“These works came about following the discovery of a void underneath part of the original leisure centre.
“The void is understood to have been present for a number of years and was discovered when the reinforced concrete slab, which provides the foundation for the new swimming pool, was cast.
“By addressing these historic issues, it allows us the opportunity to ensure future generations will be able to access modern sport and leisure facilities in their city for many years to come.
“Once the works have been completed the original leisure centre facility can be refurbished as planned – which includes an extended gym, two new activity studios, a spin studio as well as meeting facilities – and complement the 25 metre, six-lane swimming pool that opened last year.”
Work is scheduled to go on until spring 2024 and in the meantime a temporary gym will remain in use on the car park near the entrance to the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre.
The £300,000 facility, operated by Brimhams Active on behalf of North Yorkshire Council, includes Technogym equipment.
Customers are able to use the changing and shower facilities at the swimming pool as well as the sauna and steam suite. Group exercise classes continue to be provided at Hugh Ripley Hall.
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Ripon temporary gym to remain in place until 2024The temporary gym at the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in Ripon looks set to remain in place until March next year.
The £300,000 facility, which is operated by Brimhams Active on behalf of North Yorkshire Council, was installed last month.
The installation enabled the closure of the existing gym on the upper floor of the 28-year-old leisure centre next to the new swimming pool, paving the way for ground stabilisation works costing £3.5 million to be carried out under the building.
In a statement due before next week’s full council, Cllr Simon Myers, executive councillor for culture, arts and housing, confirmed that the facility is expected to be in place until next year.
He said:
“The temporary gym will include the high-quality, state-of-the-art Technogym equipment currently available in the existing leisure and wellness centre.
“As well as expert advice and guidance from the Brimhams Active team, customers will still be able to use the changing and shower facilities in the new pool area, as well as the sauna and steam suite as they will remain open as normal.
“Group exercise classes will also continue to be provided at Hugh Ripley Hall. The new swimming pool will remain open as usual.
“The temporary gym will be used until the refurbishment project is completed by March 2024.”
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The installation of the gym comes after an investigation into ground conditions beneath the older half of the leisure centre after an underground void was discovered in 2020.
At the time, Harrogate Borough Council said the void is understood to have been “present for a number of years and was only discovered when the reinforced concrete slab, which provides the foundation for the new swimming pool, was cast”.
Council dashes hopes of new learner swimming pool for RiponNorth Yorkshire Council has said it has no plans to build a learner pool in Ripon following calls by local councillors and residents.
There have been hopes in the city that a facility to help children under four learn to swim could be built by the new council despite the now-abolished Harrogate Borough Council opening the £18m Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre on Dallamires Lane only two years ago.
The new facility has a six-lane pool — but not a smaller pool.
Critics say this forces families with young children to go to Knaresborough, Harrogate or even further afield for swimming lessons.
Parents who formed Ripon Pool Action Group published a survey last year that found there are over 1,000 children of pre-school age living in the Ripon area that could benefit from a learner pool.
At a meeting of Ripon City Council last week, council leader Andrew Williams, who also sits on North Yorkshire Council as an independent, said the city council would be writing to the new authority asking it to commit to building the pool.
But Nic Harne, North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director of community development, said the new council, which is looking to make savings, has no plans to build a learner pool.
Mr Harne said:
“Residents will understand that it is extremely expensive to build and maintain swimming pools so the right thing to do is to ensure that there are safe and secure facilities to meet the local demand.
“Therefore, we have no plans to build a learner pool in Ripon.”
Leisure facilities in Ripon are run by Brimhams Active, an arm’s length company set up by Harrogate Borough Council.
North Yorkshire Council, which now owns Brimhams Active, has pledged to undertake a £120,000 review of leisure services with the aim of creating a countywide model for delivering leisure and sport by 2027.
Mr Harne added:
“As we bring together our leisure provision under the new council, we are reviewing all our facilities across the county to ensure they continue meet the needs of their communities.”
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‘We want our learner swimming pool’, say Ripon councillorsCouncillors in Ripon have called on the new North Yorkshire Council to build a learner pool so children aged under four can learn to swim in the city.
Last year, Harrogate Borough Council opened the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre on Dallamires Lane to replace the city’s 116-year-old Spa Baths.
However, the project has been dogged by controversy due to spiralling costs related to concerns about sinkholes.
The current cost of the project is estimated to be £18m — which is £8m over-budget.
The now-abolished council was also criticised for not building a smaller pool alongside the main pool.
It does offer swimming lessons through arms-length council leisure company Brimhams Active but they take place in the six-lane, 25-metre pool that is designed for adults and older children.
This means families have to take young children to Knaresborough, Harrogate or even further afield for swimming lessons.
At a meeting of Ripon City Council on Monday night, council leader Andrew Williams, who also sits on North Yorkshire Council as an independent, said the city council would be writing to the new authority asking it to commit to building a learner pool in Ripon.
He said:
”It’s a very sad fact that Harrogate Borough Council when considering building a new pool couldn’t find the £630,000 that was needed to provide Ripon with a learner pool, the same as children in Knaresborough and Harrogate have.
”Instead, we were told that this was unaffordable but they could find £8m to fund incompetence and overspend. I find that incredible. It’s just a sad record of Harrogate council’s inability to deliver anything properly.”
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Parents who formed Ripon Pool Action Group have campaigned for a learner pool in the city for several years and last year published a survey that found there are over 1,000 children of pre-school age living in the Ripon area.
The survey suggested there was a demand for a learner pool with 63% of parents saying they would swim with their children once a week if Ripon had one.
Cllr Pauline McHardy, who on Harrogate Borough Council was an outspoken critic of the leisure centre project in Ripon, said she backed the bid to build a learner pool.
She said:
”I raised this at Harrogate council and said it was disgusting they couldn’t find money for the learner pool.”
North Yorkshire Council has been approached for comment.
Temporary gym installed at Ripon leisure centreThe building that will house the £300,000 temporary gym at the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre has been located in the car park near the entrance to the swimming pool.
The prefabricated structure was put into position yesterday morning using a long-reach mobile crane and while the opening date has yet to be confirmed, a spokesperson for North Yorkshire Council told the Stray Ferret:
“I believe it will be towards the end of the month (April) that customers will start to use the alternative gym.”
The temporary building
Once up and running, the temporary facility will enable the closure of the existing gym on the upper floor of the 28-year-old leisure centre next to the new swimming pool that opened last March.
This will pave the way for ground stabilisation works costing £3.5million to be carried out under the building.
The temporary gym, operated by Brimhams Active on behalf of the newly-formed North Yorkshire Council unitary authority, will be fitted out with Technogym equipment currently available in the existing leisure and wellness centre, and expert advice and guidance will be available.
Customers will still be able to use the changing and shower facilities in the new pool area – as well as the sauna and steam suite – as they will remain open as normal.
Group exercise classes will also continue to be provided at Hugh Ripley Hall.
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