Health village is on hold once again

More delays in long-running rugby club saga

Plans for a new GP surgery and extra care facility on the site of Scarborough’s old rugby club are once again on hold.

S c a rb o roug h C ou nc i l ’s p l a n n i n g c o mmitt e e r e f u s e d a n o ut l i n e application from Ashley House PLC for 24 residential units, a three- storey GP surgery and a 60-bed extra care home in Scalby Road due to concerns that a legal agreement between the two parties was not in place.

At its meeting on Thursday last week councillors r e j e c t e d t h e p l a n s b ut urged the council offi cers and the applicants to get around the table very quickly in order to get the scheme moving.

Even though the appli- cation was for an outline permission, had consent been granted last week the developer could have begun work on the extra care home straight away.

Howeve r, t h e c o mmittee was told that a Section 106 agreement had not been agreed with Ashley House PLC so its officers could not recommend the scheme for approval.

The ol d r ugby club has been the subject of a health village planning application for a number of years. The council said it required legal assurances on the number of affordable units from Ashely House before it could proceed.

A spokesman for the developer told the committee it had only received a revised Section 106 offer from the council four days before the hearing and, as such, had not been able to address the concerns.

Chairman of the planning committee Cllr Jane Mortimer said: “I think it is a shame as I hoped we could come here today and make progress with this application.

“At t he moment t he o f - f i cers are not happy [ with the Section 1 06] going forward and would hate to agree to s omething t hat changes halfway through. “We do need an extra care home and a GP surgery but [without an agreement] I can’t vote for it.”

Her views were echoed by Cllr Colin Haddington, who added: “I have very, very serious concerns about what we have been told about this application.

“I don’t want to vote for anything today to find out later that I have been stitched up by the developer.”

‘I think it is a shame as I hoped we could

come here today and make progress’