North Yorkshire Council has agreed a ‘backstop’ and will pick up the tab for repairs at Scarborough Athletic’s football pitch ‘if negotiations don’t produce solutions’.
Meeting at Scarborough Town Hall on Tuesday (June 17), the Executive of North Yorkshire Council said it was committed to the long-term future of the community football pitch and finding an “expedient” solution.
The authority stated that the repairs at the council-owned Scarborough Sports Village could cost it £3.2m, although executive members hoped it would be less.
NYC had been planning to replace the surface with an upgraded version at the end of the current season but a survey had identified “serious structural issues, including a defective drainage system installed when the facility was first constructed”.
Coun Simon Myers, executive member for culture, arts, and housing, said:
“Not only do we want to put it right, we want it done as soon as possible for the club and the fans, that is our commitment.
“This is the backstop position: in the event that negotiations don’t produce an early solution – and we won’t let them drag on for too long – the council will undertake the works to remedy the defects and resurface the pitch”.
Coun Myers told the meeting that negotiations were at a “crunch point” and “we should know where we’re going in the next week or so”.
The proposed repair works would see a higher quality ‘Fifa Pro’ pitch installed which is expected to take up to 10 months without additional financial awards.
Improvements to the pitch quality would enable Scarborough Athletic Football Club to maintain its current level of play but would result in reduced community use, from around 20 hours to less than 40 hours previously.
The plan for the backstop was unanimously approved by the Executive committee but concerns were raised about the financing as well as the cause of the instability in the pitch.
The original pitch development agreement was with Wrenbridge, subcontracted to Wilmott Dixon and other parties and the contract with Wilmott Dixon has a limitation period of 12 years (from September 2015) and various collateral warranties.
Coun Myers, the executive member for culture, said:
“[The pitch} should’ve had a lifespan of 10 years but it turned out it was not adequate for use by SAFC and an investigation found there were major faults when it was originally built.”
He assured colleagues: “Do not fear that we won’t hesitate to pursue all appropriate legal remedies” regarding the original work that was done on the pitch.
Coun Liz Colling, chair of the Scarborough and Whitby Area Committee said:
“As a committee, we are unanimous in expressing our support for the club and their importance for the town as a community-owned club.
“We look forward to an expedited timeframe for the repairs.”
She added:
“We still have concerns about how this came to pass on a new build with an expected lifetime of 10 years and we look forward to further details when appropriate.”
Also speaking at the meeting, Coun Rich Maw asked for assurance about the nature of the works and monitoring their impact on neighbouring properties.
Jo Ireland, assistant director for leisure, said:
“We’ve worked with the original contractors on that to ensure there is confidence in the solution, as well as our own engineers and experts.
“There has been significant discussion and so I think we could say we have confidence in the solution and the issue here is about solving the underlying issues which relate to a complex set of factors.”
While the pitch is unavailable, Scarborough Athletic have agreed to play their home fixtures at Bridlington Town’s ground during the 2025/26 season.
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