‘Growing outrage at SBC’: club chairman

More “outraged” people have joined a club to stop Scarborough Council selling the tranquil greenery as a pub-hotel car park.

A popular group in a tranquil setting created at the turn of the 20th century is gathering support in its attempt to stop Scarborough Council selling the greenery for a pub-hotel. By signing the form on this page you can add your voice to those calling on the South Cliff Bowls Club and the open public space to be saved.

Club chairman Tony Campbell said this week :“The feelings of outrage at the potential disposal and destruction of this site is palpable,” as he revealed that membership has soared even further as people standby the club.

The historic green, created in 1908, has been added by the council to its sell-off of the closed Filey Road sports centre site, with a short time for consultation.

Scarborough Council said it looked to market the land after the club came to it in 2015 saying membership had fallen – though the authority agrees that it has now bounced back. But the council’s leadership nevertheless agreed on October 17 to dispose of the bowling green site “in principle” – a move that would destroy the carefully-created heritage of South Cliff.

The council says the club can relocate somewhere “in the vicinity” instead.

That site would be Sea Cliff, regarded as a windswept option that would lose the current attractive pavilion to a car park for the pub- hotel. Protesters have also had to remind Scarborough Council’s leadership that the site is in a conservation area and the club voted overwhelmingly in August to seek to remain on the site. Club’s rising fury, letters page 36