A leisure centre is set to be allocated another £2m of funding to fund ongoing upgrades.

The Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in Ripon, North Yorkshire is set to be allocated more funding for major upgrades with key facilities seen as vital in boosting health and wellbeing ensuring communities are provided for.  

North Yorkshire Council will be asked on Tuesday (May 28) to approve additional funding of £2 million from the strategic capacity reserve budget for a scheme that is underway to deal with the ongoing ground stabilisation of the existing building.  

The project was started by the former Harrogate Borough Council with an initial £6.5 million budget allocated to cover the ground stabilisation with North Yorkshire Council now taking over following their launch in April 2023. However, the amount of grout needed is currently higher than expected.  

Work began in November 2019 to update the leisure centre with a new six-lane swimming pool and playground opening in spring 2022 installing a temporary gym in the car park uncovering the need for ground stabilisation. This internal refurbishment has therefore been put on hold until this work is complete.  

North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for leisure, Cllr Simon Myers, said: “Whilst Harrogate Borough Council estimated the cost of the ground stabilisation before work started, the nature of the geology issues in Ripon meant that it was difficult to forecast it with a high degree of certainty. 

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“More grout has been needed to stabilise this building and we estimate that we now need an additional £2 million.  

“It is disappointing that the overall project is now estimated at £8.5million but we believe Ripon deserves good quality leisure facilities.  

“If we had decided not to proceed with the stabilisation works and looked to move the leisure centre side of the operation to another area, we would have had the pool and leisure centre in separate locations which is not only more costly for us to operate, but also not the best option for customers either.”