Support for ambulance station on field next to hospital

PLANS FOR a new ambulance station set to be built at Scarborough Hospital can now go ahead as the town’s council has lifted a restrictive covenant on land it sold more than 50 years ago.

When North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) bought a plot of land from Scarborough Council more than 50 years ago, the Scarborough authority set a clause limiting the use of the land.

As part of the land sale conditions in 1971, Scarborough Council decreed that the land could only be used for “educational purposes”.

Located next to Graham School and Woodlands Academy, the land has been used as a playing field.

Coun Liz Colling, Scarborough council’s cabinet member for inclusive growth, decided that the restrictive covenant should be lifted.

Minutes of the meeting state: “The portfolio holder approves the grant of the deed of variation as outlined in this report subject to planning permission and a third party land transaction.”

This will allow North Yorkshire County Council to sell the land on Woodlands Drive to the Yorkshire Ambulance Service to accommodate the expansion of Scarborough Hospital.

Building work to create a new £47m emergency care centre is ongoing. A new £500,000 helipad was opened at Scarborough Hospital in March, which will allow larger helicopters and night landings for the first time.

The land will be operated by the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as a new ambulance station.

Scarborough has an existing ambulance station on Queen Margaret’s Road.

Scarborough Council’s director, Nicholas Edwards, said “there is no detrimental impact to Scarborough Borough Council”.