£4.6m grant for Gardens
Project to put South Cliff Gardens at ‘heart of the community’
Scarborough Borough Council has been awarded a grant towards the cost of a project to restore and improve the historic South Cliff Gardens. The Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund has awarded a £4,665,700 grant for the project which will benefit current and future generations.
The National Lottery money will now be added to funds already raised by the local South Cliff community for the Saving South Cliff Gardens project.
It aims to preserve the gardens’ unique heritage and improve them in a way that will reconnect them with today’s residents and visitors, in the same way that the original gardens did over 100 years ago.
The local community has worked tirelessly with the council’s consultants, Southern Green, and the council’s project officer to get the project plans and funding to an advanced stage, including raising more than £100,000 from local pledges.
David Auton, Chair of South Cliff Community Group, said: “Our members have given hundreds of hours of their time to organise and run a campaign that raised £112,000 in pledges in just a few weeks. We are absolutely delighted with this outcome, and we would like to thank everyone who has taken part, given their time, organised events and made pledges in this extraordinary journey that will see the gardens restored to the heart of the community, and will be our legacy for future generations.”
The aim is for the project to get underway in March 2020 and be completed by the end of March 2021.
Leader of Scarborough Borough Council, Cllr Derek Bastiman, said: “It really is fantastic news and is a tribute to the dedication of the Chair of the South Cliff Community group, group members and the wider community. United in their commitment to restoring and improving the gardens, they have worked tirelessly for the funding and they should be very proud of their achievements.”