Harrogate council to spend extra £1m on building fitness suite after discovering issues with original Hydro building

Work is well under way to provide a new 400sqm fitness suite, a new sauna and steam suite, improved reception and café at the Hydro in Harrogate with improved energy efficiency measures to halve the carbon footprint.

Outside, the building is being remodelled to provide a reconfigured car park, bicycle storage and electric vehicle charging points.

The diving structure is also being replaced so that it can continue to create and nurture future Olympians.

The existing gas boilers have been replaced with air-source heat pumps and 250 solar panels, along with new metering and energy monitoring and control systems.

But, the council says, as can happen when refurbishing an existing building, some additional areas of work have been discovered that only came to light when the building was closed and a strip-out took place.

As a result, the Hydro requires improvements to the fire protection of the steel frame, replacement of corroded steelwork, replacement of soffit boarding, renewal of the existing moveable floor in the diving pool and resolution of heat loss between the roof and the external walls.

To help fund this additional work, and to ensure the building conforms to the latest legislation and is as energy-efficient as possible, the council have allocated a further £915,264.55*.

Coun Stanley Lumley, Harrogate Borough Council's cabinet member for culture, tourism and sport, and chair of the board of directors at Brimhams Active, said: "By carrying out this additional work now, while the facility is closed, we can ensure the building is fit for purpose and can conform to the latest legislation and building regulations.

"At a time of increasing energy costs, we are helping to offset this by making the leisure centre as energy-efficient as possible.

“Thanks to a government grant of £1.8million, it will utilise renewal energy."

The council anticipates the facility opening next summer.

In Knaresborough, the major new leisure and wellness centre is on target to open at the end next summer as construction work continues.