Updated
Friday, 4th June 2021, 8:04 pm
Harrogate Borough Council has announced Knaresborough Pool will reopen in July, but no exact date has been confirmed. Photo: HBC.
Harrogate Borough Council has today announced the pool will welcome back swimmers before the start of the school summer holidays on 26 July, but the authority said it could not yet give an exact date.
The pool closed when the first national lockdown came into force in March 2020 and has stayed shut since because of broken filters which the council previously said could only be fixed by Spanish manufacturers unable to travel due to Covid restrictions.
RIPON Spa Baths has reopened today after more than a year of closures caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The baths was forced to close in March 2020 when the first lockdown came into force and has stayed shut until today due to staff supporting frontline council services stretched by the pandemic. All swimming pools, leisure centres and gyms were allowed to reopen last month when other Harrogate council-run sites including the Hydro, Nidderdale Pool and Ripon Leisure Centre made a return. However, Knaresborough Pool and Starbeck Baths are still shut, and it remains unclear when they will reopen. This is because maintenance works at Knaresborough Pool due to be carried out by specialist engineers from Spain have been halted by travel restrictions, the council previously said, although it added it was trying to find a UK-based firm to fix the problem.
A SENIOR Harrogate councillor says he hopes Ripon and Starbeck Baths will reopen next month. Councillor Stanley Lumley, cabinet member for culture, tourism and sport at Harrogate Borough, said the swimming pools were currently closed despite a government go-ahead to reopen because of staffing shortages and “challenges” around social distancing. He added the council is “hoping” they can reopen in May, although Knaresborough Pool will stay shut due to maintenance problems. “We are hoping to open Ripon Pool in May and providing we have got staff availability, very soon after that we will be opening Starbeck,” he told a meeting last night.