
A major project to repair and upgrade Scarborough Railway Station’s roof and improve passenger safety has been approved after plans were changed.
Network Rail’s application for wide-ranging repairs to the Central Railway Station, including replacing the timber lantern roof and renewing the main station and train shed roof, can go ahead, North Yorkshire Council has ruled.
The roof repairs are part of a £14m project to improve the coastal town’s Grade II listed railway station.
The station’s trainshed roof lantern will be replaced, alongside other internal and external repairs, while a fire escape ladder will be added to an existing lightwell.
Repairs to timber, stone and mortar will also be undertaken, and the gutters and other drainage systems will be updated and replaced.
North Yorkshire Council’s conservation officer originally objected to the proposal over concerns that a proposed roof access system would “negatively impact the architectural interest of the listed building”.
However, after amendments were introduced to the proposal, the conservation officer said that the repairs would be “less visually intrusive and would not result in harm to the aesthetic significance of the heritage asset”.
The officer added: “The location of the new roof access structures is now limited to only where necessary, and largely upgrades and renews existing provisions.
“The alterations are proposed to areas around the station buildings where the overall architectural interest would not be harmed.”
The roof lantern replacement will be an exact reproduction in terms of design and appearance to the existing roof lantern, and “therefore, visually, will not detract from the architectural history of the feature,” a planning report notes.
Officers concluded that the scheme would “successfully preserve the special interest” of the historic site, and permission was granted subject to conditions.
Designed by GT Andrews, Scarborough’s Central Railway Station was constructed as the terminus of the York and North Midland Railway from York and opened to train services in July 1845, while the “elaborate baroque clock tower” was added in 1882.
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