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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.
BOROUGH bosses have rejected repeated calls for the sale of Ripon Spa Baths to be halted while work on the city’s regeneration masterplan is underway. The historic baths was put on the market by Harrogate Borough Council in February in a move which sparked concerns that it could lose its community use if snapped up by a private developer. Groups including Ripon City Council, Ripon Civic Society and Ripon Together have since made calls for the sale not to be rushed through, but borough bosses have now made their intentions clearer than ever. “We have no plans to withdraw the sale of Ripon Spa Baths,” a Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson said. “The building will soon become surplus to our requirements and we do not have the resources to maintain it.