Plan to Secure Scarborough Football Pitch’s Long Term Future

The long-term future of the community football pitch at Scarborough Sports Village is set to be secured with senior councillors to be asked to approve a programme of urgent repairs.

The 3G pitch at the home ground of Scarborough Athletic Football Club, which is owned by North Yorkshire Council, was due to be resurfaced this summer.

But a site survey revealed serious and unexpected structural issues, including a defective drainage system installed when the facility was first constructed in 2017. 

Due to the severity of the findings, the pitch is not available for competitive fixtures for the start of the 2025/26 season.

Technical experts have been exploring the works required before the pitch can be resurfaced, with the aim of speeding up the repairs and reducing the impact on both the club and other users of the ground.

A number of remedial options are due to be discussed by the council’s executive on Tuesday, June 17, with the authority committed to ensuring the urgent works are completed in time for the start of the 2026/27 season.

North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director of community development, Nic Harne, said:

“We understand how difficult and disruptive this is for all users of the pitch.

“We all want to ensure this issue is resolved as quickly as possible during the next football season, despite its complexity, and it’s imperative that we secure the long-term future of the community football pitch.

“A lot of detailed work has been ongoing to present a potential pathway ahead, and a range of remedial options will now be presented to the council’s executive next week.

“We are continuing to carry out positive discussions with the contractors who were originally involved, as well as with users of the pitch and other agencies.”

A number of remedial options are to be considered by councillors. The preferred course of action recommended by officers is the partial excavation and installation of a geo-mattress sub-layer to the pitch.

This would then address the structural defects and allow the pitch to be resurfaced.

The full package of works could cost about £3.2 million and take up to 44 weeks to be completed – but it is hoped that the total cost and time-scale can be significantly reduced.

The council has received a petition calling for the football pitch to be repaired, which has more than 3,300 signatures.

While the pitch is unavailable, Scarborough Athletic have agreed to play their home fixtures at Bridlington Town’s ground during the 2025/26 season.

The temporary ground share agreement has been approved by both the National League and the Northern Premier League.

The report to be presented to senior councillors next week says:

"This is a time sensitive project, involving significant disruption to users and loss of income for the Council and for SAFC. The issue needs to be resolved as quickly as possible during the next football season, despite the complexity."

The report recommends that the council provides a backstop funding arrangement to ensure that repair works can progress in a timely manner.

"It is recommended that to provide stability and certainty for all parties that the Council provides a commitment to resolve the underlying issues and replacing the pitch.

It is recommended that the current positive discussions with the contractors continue, however, with the backstop position that the Council undertakes the work if a positive resolution is not forthcoming in an acceptable timescale.

In the event that there is a dispute then all legal options will be considered."

The report also highlights that the nature of the replacement surface will halve the availability of the pitch for community use.

"In relation to the resurfacing of the pitch, this is required to a FIFA Quality pro standard to enable SAFC to continue to play in their current league (National League North).

This reduces the amount of community use on the pitch from over 40 hours to around 20 hours per week.

The estimated loss of revenue for this is around £40k per annum and an agreement has been reached with SAFC on a new charging structure to cover this loss in revenue for the Council. "

While that would suggest that SAFC will be paying more for their use of the pitch the proposal also includes the potential for the club to recoup some of that cost by taking over the arrangements for the stadium naming rights. The report states:

"Currently the naming rights sit with the Council, the current agreement with Flamingo Land has expired and despite two procurement rounds by the Council no interest in the naming rights has been secured. It is proposed that SAFC attempt to secure an appropriate sponsor for the ground for the next period (5 years) and that any income generated can be retained by the Club to support the additional costs incurred during this period."

The council says that discussions are taking place with the original contractors, with a view to achieving a resolution, which is acceptable to the Council, and which remedies the identified defects.

The report concludes:

"This is a complex situation that requires certainty around the long-term future of the community football pitch. It is therefore recommended that a commitment is given to ensuring that the defects are remedied, and the pitch resurfaced during the 25/26 football season, with a view to play commencing by the start of the 2026 season at the latest."