Extra £2m to be spent on Ripon leisure centre sinkhole repairs

The new funding will bring the repair costs to £8.5m

A North Yorkshire leisure centre is to be given a further £2m in funding to help repair a sinkhole under the site.

Since the void was discovered under the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in Ripon in 2022, £6.5m has so far been spent on the problem.

On Tuesday, senior councillors unanimously approved spending the extra £2m to pump more grout into the void.

It was hoped the works would stabilise the ground so the leisure centre could be refurbished.

As of last month, almost 3,000 tonnes of grout had already been pumped into the sinkhole under the site, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

While the pool at the centre had been in use since it opened in 2022, plans for a gym and studios were delayed following the discovery of the void.

A temporary gym was erected in the site's car park at a cost of £300,000.

'Sunk cost fallacy'

Like much of Ripon, the leisure centre sits above a layer of gypsum, a water-soluble rock that leads to the formation of large underground caves that can collapse.

The project to deal with the void under the centre was initially begun by the former Harrogate Borough Council, but was taken over by North Yorkshire Council in April 2023.

Speaking earlier this month, Councillor Simon Myers, North Yorkshire Council's Conservative executive member for leisure, said: "It is disappointing that the overall project is now estimated at £8.5m, 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."

But retired chartered engineer Stanley Mackintosh, who campaigned against the site being used for the leisure centre due to the gypsum issue, told the LDRS that the ground stabilisation works had become a literal example of a "sunk cost fallacy" for the authority.