A YORK hotel has closed its leisure centre at short notice, due to health and safety concerns while a major refurbishment takes place.

The Royal York hotel is undergoing a mass overhaul, and members of its leisure club learnt this week that the gym and swimming pool will have to close for October and November while work is going on above the club's roof windows.

Members got a letter this week telling them that "essential, unforeseen" works would be taking place around the leisure club, meaning it would be closed from Monday, October 5 until Tuesday, December 1.

Managers at the leisure centre apologised for the inconvenience, and the short notice given for the closure.
Hotel general manager Stephen Carter has said while no work had to be done in the leisure club they had decided to close it for health and safety reasons.

"It will very very definitely be open on December 1, and while it is closed we will thoroughly clean the leisure club and pool areas.

"We are closing it because there are roof windows in the leisure areas, and work is going ahead above them.

"In addition to that, there is a lot of noisy work going on around the leisure areas."

He added: "We were disappointed not to be able to give longer notice to our members."

The hotel is in the midst of a major refit which owners Principal Hayley hotels embarked upon to refurbish the railway hotel back to its Victorian heyday.

Mr Carter said work was progressing on schedule, with new food and drinks areas schedule to open in November.

"We believe they will be areas that not only will our guests be proud to use but all residents of York will in interested in as well."

But in late September bride and groom Oliver Calpin and Annabelle Carr spoke of their shock at finding parts of the hotel, which they had booked for their wedding reception, "like a building site".