Concerns Raised Over North Yorkshire Council’s Plan To Move Out Of Scarborough Town Hall

North Yorkshire Council is considering relocating from Scarborough Town Hall to Resolution House on the A64 to reduce maintenance costs, sparking concerns from local officials and business leaders regarding town centre footfall and a lack of consultation.

Concerns have been raised about the economic impact of plans for the council to move from a central North Yorkshire town hall to a ‘modern office’ out of town.

North Yorkshire Council bosses have been asked to approve a plan to buy Resolution House on the A64 to replace Scarborough’s Town Hall as it reviews its property portfolio at a meeting on Tuesday, March 17.

Councillors have said they were “left in the dark” about the plans, which could include selling the town hall, and raised concerns about impacts on town centre businesses.

Anglo American, which previously had staff based at Resolution House, began marketing the site for disposal earlier this year, with a guide price of £4.5 million.

North Yorkshire Council currently operates Scarborough Town Hall and Castle House in the town, which provide office space for employees as well as customer services.

Cllr Janet Jefferson, who is also president of the Scarborough Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said:

“My main concern really is the economic impact.

“We did a retail impact assessment on it previously, and how it would affect the footfall within the town, and I’m also concerned about the viability of employees getting out there.

“I’m concerned about the economic future of Scarborough.”

She also raised concerns about the accessibility of the building for residents wishing to attend meetings and for employees and councillors, adding that council staff had already been in contact with concerns about parking.

“How can we expect other people to invest when we’re moving out? That’s the main thing to me – they could do so much with that building.”

At the same meeting, members of the executive are set to discuss proposals for a pilot scheme that would require landlords to rent out “persistently vacant commercial properties to new tenants such as local businesses or community groups”.

The scheme seeks to tackle the “blight of empty and increasingly derelict properties” on high streets.

The authority noted that the move “may have an impact on town centre footfall”.

However, a report adds:

“The fact that customer-facing services will remain close to the town centre in Castle House should also provide some comfort for retailers.

North Yorkshire Council said that the Town Hall is “significantly under-utilised”, with more than 100 desks sitting empty on a typical day and 80 per cent of the available floor space unused due to its deteriorating condition.

It estimated that modernising and bringing the building up to standard could require up to £19 million of investment.

Cllr Thomas Murray, Scarborough town mayor, said:

“Once again, North Yorkshire Council leaves Scarborough in the dark with Town Hall Plans found out on Facebook”.

“Scarborough’s historic Town Hall is not just another office block to be quietly written off from Northallerton.

“It is where Scarborough Town Council resides and where much of our civic life takes place, yet neither I, as mayor, nor the town council were consulted, and the first I heard of it was on Facebook, which is frankly appalling.

“This throws real uncertainty over the future of the Town Council, our offices, meetings and civic functions, and could ultimately leave Scarborough residents facing additional costs.”

North Yorkshire Council reported that addressing backlog maintenance and creating fit-for-purpose office accommodation would require investment of between £15million and £19million for Scarborough Town Hall, between £7million and £12million for Pavilion House, and several million pounds for Ryedale House.

According to a report prepared for the executive committee, the scheme would create

“minimum ongoing savings in property running costs of £400,000 per annum and savings of more than £20million in backlog maintenance liabilities across Ryedale House and Scarborough Town Hall”.

It said that

“the total investment proposed in this report would achieve a payback period of less than 10 years based solely on the ongoing savings in property running costs”.

A provisional sum of up to £750,000 has also been proposed to support the establishment of new front-facing customer service points within Scarborough and Malton town centres, and to fund costs associated with the advancement of redevelopment proposals for vacated sites.