Opposition leader urges council to abandon plans for North Bay cinema

THE LEADER of Scarborough Borough Council’s opposition group has called on the authority to ditch plans for a cinema in the town’s North Bay following consistent delays.

Coun Steve Siddons, who leads the Labour group on the council, also said the authority should revisit developing a multiplex in the town centre.

The scheme, by Benchmark Leisure, proposes a cinema, apartments and car park at the former Atlantis waterpark site.

However, it has been beset by a number of delays and planning issues, having originally been scheduled to open in 2018.

The most recent plans lodged with the council reduced parking spaces, from about 300 to 109 lots and increased the number of apartments from 24 to 63.

Coun Siddons yesterday called on the council to go back to the drawing board.

He said: “Isn’t it time to completely review the location of the new cinema for the town?

“When the plans were first released, Labour insisted the cinema should be built in the town centre in accordance with planning rules.

“The Conservatives chose to ignore those rules and look where that has left us, with no new cinema at all in the foreseeable future.

“They have propped up the North Bay developer for so long. It’s time to revisit the plans to give Scarborough a new cinema.”

The current application, which now includes a gym and restaurants at the cinema development site, has garnered a number of objections.