Council Dismisses Fears Over Scarborough Town Centre Footfall Following Office Relocation

North Yorkshire Council has reassured residents and businesses that moving staff from Scarborough Town Hall to a new site on the outskirts will not damage town centre trade.

North Yorkshire Council has dismissed claims that relocating staff from Scarborough Town Hall to a new office on the outskirts of the town will negatively impact town centre trade.

The authority recently approved the purchase of Resolution House, located on the A64, to replace the deteriorating town centre offices. The move is expected to save the council up to four hundred thousand pounds a year, avoiding an estimated nineteen million pound repair bill for the current site.

However, the decision has faced pushback. A group of Independent and Green Party councillors formally called in the decision for scrutiny, expressing concerns that moving personnel away from the town centre could weaken the local economy and reduce footfall.

Addressing these fears, the council's deputy leader, Councillor Gareth Dadd, strongly refuted the idea that the relocation would harm local businesses, pointing out that recent staff movements have actually brought more people into the town centre.

He said:

"There are 80 losses of personnel, there or thereabouts, at best, at peak, coming out of the town centre up into Resolution House.

There's been far more moved from North Yorkshire House into the town centre over the last 12 or 18 months. So this, this fallacy that we are decimating the town centre by moving our operations out and staff propensity to spend and all the rest of it, is a fallacy, and it's just that."

The council recently closed North Yorkshire House, relocating hundreds of workers to Castle House, which is situated closer to the heart of Scarborough.

Corporate director for resources, Gary Fielding, explained that the current town hall site is heavily underused and that the recent consolidation of staff at Castle House has already boosted town centre numbers.

He said:

"Far fewer staff use the building today, and the town hall site is now significantly underutilised. It's 88 people on average, peak midweek. So when we talk about lots and lots of people, it is 88.

We recently closed and disposed of North Yorkshire House. 300 of our staff were based in North Yorkshire House and were relocated to Castle House.

With the closure of North Yorkshire House, Castle House now hosts more staff than before, increasing the footfall into the town centre and largely offsetting the proposed relocation of staff from the town hall to Resolution House.

There are more coming into the town centre than would be going out as a consequence of this move."

The purchase of Resolution House from Anglo American was provisionally agreed after the building was marketed with a guide price of four and a half million pounds. Officers have indicated that the final purchase price is substantially lower, representing significant value for the taxpayer.

The condition of Scarborough Town Hall has been described by officials as appalling, with reports highlighting major health and safety issues and revealing that up to eighty per cent of its floor space is currently unused. The deteriorating state of the building has been a long-standing challenge for successive administrations over the past three decades.

Despite the relocation of back-office functions to the A64 site, the council has committed to maintaining a central office base for staff who need to work in Scarborough town centre. A customer service centre will also be retained, and one hundred staff currently working in Castle House will remain in their town centre location.

The formal call-in by opposition councillors means that the authority's oversight and scrutiny committee will review whether sufficient information was available to support the executive's decision. Critics have raised concerns about the lack of consultation with Scarborough councillors and the potential impact on democratic accountability.

In addition to the office move, councillors have agreed to invest up to seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds to help progress redevelopment proposals on vacant sites and support the possible creation of new customer service points in Scarborough and Malton town centres.

Council leaders maintain that the business case for purchasing Resolution House is robust, arguing that they have a duty to protect public finances while providing fit-for-purpose working conditions for their staff.

Related Stories

• 
  Opposition Councillors Call For Scrutiny Over Scarborough Office Purchase

  18 Mar 2026 - North Yorkshire Council's plan to purchase Resolution House has been sent to an oversight committee following a formal call-in by opposition ...
• 
  Council's Scarborough Building Move to Save £400,000 a Year and £19m in Repairs

  18 Mar 2026 - North Yorkshire Council has approved the purchase of Resolution House on the outskirts of Scarborough to replace deteriorating town centre ...
• 
  Council Confirms Move to Modern Scarborough Hub but Pledges to Retain Town Hall

  17 Mar 2026 - North Yorkshire Council's executive committee has today confirmed it's intention to purchase of Resolution House in Eastfield, ...
• 
  Scarborough Mayor Reassured Over Town Hall Relocation Plans

  17 Mar 2026 - The discussions were prompted by the news that North Yorkshire Council is to purchase Resolution House, a modern office building situated on the ...