More than £550,000 has been spent on electricity and gas bills at Craven Leisure while solar panels and a heat pump installed almost two years ago have remained unused.
A total of 500 solar panels were installed at the Skipton leisure centre in November 2021 as part of a £1.2m project to reduce carbon emissions at the council’s buildings and reduce bills.
An air source heat pump was also installed in early 2022 to heat the swimming pool.
But North Yorkshire Council, which took ownership of the centre from Craven District Council in April, has not been able to switch them on yet, blaming issues “beyond our control” and the building needing an electricity upgrade.
With energy costs spiralling over the last two years, the delays have proved to be costly for council tax payers.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked North Yorkshire Council in a freedom of information request how much has been spent on bills at the leisure centre since the renewable energy technology was installed.
The response was £160,621.38 on electricity and £392,632.33 on gas.
North Yorkshire Council still does not know when the solar panels and heat pump will be switched on.
Green Party councillor for Aire Valley, Andy Brown, described the sums spent on gas and electricity as a “huge amount of money to be lost”.
He said: “It is such a shame that the hard work put in by Councillors from all parts of Craven District Council to get solar panels on the roof of their swimming pool at Aireville Park has been undermined by delays in making the connection to the grid. Council tax payers in our community can ill afford to have money wasted on energy bills when perfectly good equipment has been installed that could cut costs and help with climate change.
“The energy companies must have known for decades that change was coming. They are letting down everyone at a time when few of us can afford extra expense and all sensible people are worrying about the chaotic changes to our climate that are only just starting.”
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