Huge flooding incident disrupts building of new £20m leisure centre at Pontefract Park

The new facility is due to open next year.

The pool hall at Five Towns Leisure and Wellbeing Hub at Pontefract Park, which was due to open in the autumn of next year, was flooded with 1.5million litres of drain water after an accident on October 25, Wakefield Council said.

The amount of water concerned would fill more than half an Olympic swimming pool.

The incident happened as Yorkshire Water were operating on pipes underneath the leisure facility's new 3G pitch. The company has been contacted for comment.

An artist's impression of how the leisure centre's foyer will look.

Writing in a report going before councillors on Wednesday, Cabinet member for leisure, Coun Jacquie Speight said: "Whilst things continue at pace on the site of the new leisure and wellbeing hub in Pontefract Park, we have had to deal with an incident whilst Yorkshire Water were on site diverting water mains sitting under the site of the new 3G pitch.

"Due to an unexpected release of water, the entire pool hall was flooded with over 1.5 million litres of water.

"This was completely beyond our control but is significant and is something we are working with our partners to overcome.

"At the moment we are still waiting to find out what this means to the overall programme but rest assured we will be pulling out all the stops to make

this as minimal as possible."

Planning permission for the new leisure hub was granted earlier this year. It is expected to draw customers from across the district.

Local Democracy Reporting Service