Council Pledges To Protect And Maintain Scarborough's Historic Town Hall

North Yorkshire Council has reassured residents that Scarborough's Victorian Town Hall will not be abandoned when staff relocate to a modern office hub on the outskirts of the town.

North Yorkshire Council has moved to reassure residents that Scarborough's historic Victorian Town Hall will continue to be maintained and utilised, despite plans to relocate hundreds of staff to a new modern office hub on the edge of the town.

The authority recently confirmed its intention to purchase Resolution House in Eastfield, which will serve as a new primary office base for the region. The modern facility, formerly the headquarters for mining firm Anglo American, had been on the market for £4.5 million, though the council has secured the site for a significantly lower, undisclosed sum.

The decision to move staff out of the town centre has raised concerns among some residents and independent businesses. However, the council insists the relocation is a necessity driven by a maintenance crisis at the Grade II listed Scarborough Town Hall, which currently costs £474,000 a year to run.

Corporate Director of Resources at North Yorkshire Council, Gary Fielding, explained the sudden decline in the building's usage:

"In late 2025, the 1950s 60s block on the Town Hall site had to be vacated urgently due to statutory compliance issues. As a result, around 80% of the floor space on the Town Hall now stands empty, and of the 210 remaining desks, utilisation is just 42% at its peak mid-week, which equates to 88 employees.

Following the closure of the 1950s 60s block, several of the civic rooms in the Town Hall, including the Civic Parlour, have had to be temporarily re-purposed as office space.

This does not represent a good use of this historic civic space, nor does it provide an appropriate working environment for our staff."

High-level assessments suggest that refurbishing the entire Town Hall site to a reasonable standard would require an investment of between £15 million and £19 million.

Mr Fielding said the immense cost of upgrading the site for modern office work could not be justified but adds that doesn't mean the building is being abandoned.:

"We fully recognise the town hall as an important heritage asset and that its potential is not currently being realised.

The site is significantly underutilised and it would require very substantial investment to bring the building back up to an appropriate standard. That level of investment simply wouldn't represent value for money for staff accommodation.

Given this reality, it is only right that we explore alternative options for the future of the building.

Our aim is to ensure the town hall is properly protected, invested in, and revitalised so that it remains in meaningful use and is preserved for future generations.

We are not proposing that it be left empty. It will remain occupied while future plans are developed."

The council is keeping a central office base at Castle House for 100 staff who need to work in and around Scarborough town centre, ensuring a continued presence for customer services. Furthermore, council leaders have recently met with the Mayor of Scarborough to offer reassurances that the town council can continue to use the Town Hall as its base for the foreseeable future.

Mr Fielding added that the local authority is determined to maintain a presence within the historic spaces while longer-term regeneration solutions are found:

"We don't want to see all of those buildings empty for a protracted period. And whilst those buildings are still there, they can still be used for some presence.

We don't want those buildings to be empty. That's not good for the buildings. But they cannot be used in the way that we currently have them planned. So, we could still have meetings in there, but we will make sure that that's optimised and in the right parts of those buildings because we will close some of that further down.

So we will look at all of those options in the meantime."

By vacating the modern sections of the Town Hall site, the council hopes to unlock a prime location adjacent to the former Futurist Theatre site. Officials believe this could pave the way for a quality commercial leisure development, providing a much-needed economic boost to the South Bay and the wider Yorkshire Coast.

The broader property rationalisation programme is expected to save the council at least £400,000 in annual running costs and avoid over £20 million in long-term maintenance liabilities across its Scarborough and Malton estates.