Ready, steady, go...
Revealed: International athletics track, tennis courts plan as council backs off from pub-hotel car park idea
Scarborough is to have an international standard athletics track and state-ofthe-art tennis courts, it has been revealed. The major plans for the south side of the town will see the threatened South Cliff Bowls Club get a new home. There was widespread public dismay at Scarborough Council’s pub-hotel and commercial plans for the heritage site.
Now a collaboration between property developer Broadland Properties, Scarborough College and the council will lead to the development of an IAAF international competition standard athletics track on the former
Bramcote sport fields, as well as six tennis courts and bowling facilities nearby, on land between Deepdale Avenue and College Lane.
Broadland Properties is now the council’s preferred bidder to redevelop the council’s old sports centre site on Filey Road for “quality, luxury housing” but the company has also committed itself to developing facilities for athletics and tennis, significantly adding to the sporting portfolio.
Scarborough Council will fund the new bowling facilities next to the tennis courts.
Thanks to Broadland Properties, the new bowling facilities proposed for land between Deepdale Avenue and College Lane, which is owned by the council but managed by Scarborough College, will provide a new home acceptable to the club, whose membership further soared as people joined it as a means of protection from the council.
The new adjoining tennis courts will be constructed to national competition standard. A council spokesman said: “The tennis courts and the athletics track planned for the former Bramcote School playing fields site will greatly enhance the provision of sporting facilities for Scarborough College and its students. The sites will also be accessible for use by the community and visiting groups.”
Richard Guthrie, Director of Broadland Properties, said: “I’m absolutely delighted that the council has chosen our bid for this site. This project is going to roll-out a housing development, the character of which the town has not seen in a generation or more. It is going to bring back the much needed and much missed suitable tennis facilities to the heart of the town and together with all of the above, it’s going to add to the town’s growing sports and leisure associated opportunities, with the development of an IAAF accredited oval 400 metre running track.
“Regional, national and international records are going to be broken on Scarborough ‘turf ’, by Scarborough heroes.”
Cllr Derek Bastiman, council leader, says the concerns – which led to hundreds of supporters from throughout Scarborough signing a petition to protect the bowls club site heritage – will be “eradicated” by the plans but did not comment on what was widelydescribed as “sham” consultation exercises by the council which had earmarked the Edwardian greenery as a car park for a pub-hotel and possibly a mini-supermarket, sparking a deep and expanding fury.
Cllr Bastiman, in his first public comment on the storm created by the council, said: “We have been in dialogue about these ambitious plans for many months, but due to the stringent procurement process we have been unable to go public with them. We have been fully aware of the concerns for the future of Scarborough South Cliff Bowls Club in recent weeks so we hope the announcement will eradicate those concerns.”
Tony Campbell, chairman of Scarborough South Cliff Bowls Club, said the club had now dropped its opposition to being moved from its home after securing a better deal from the council, with the help of the developer.
The club had launched campaigns called Filey Road Against Urban Development to bowl out the council’s commercial plans earmarked for the conservation area.
Mr Campbell said: “It is well-known locally that we were campaigning to retain our green not only to secure the future of the club but also to preserve its unique setting. However from the club’s point of view, the site now offered for provision adjoining the proposed tennis courts is a very acceptable alternative.”
Harry Forkin, chairman of Scarborough Athletic Club, said: “This is brilliant and we very much welcome the planned investment in track and field facilities.”
David Auton, chairman of the South Cliff Community Group, said:“I look forward to seeing further plans from the council and the chosen developer, which respect the green space and heritage of the locality, while providing quality housing, and top-class sports and recreational facilities.”
The plans will still need consent fom the authority’s planning committee.