A three point two million pound backstop plan to ensure Scarborough Athletics home pitch is repaired in the next 12 months has been welcomed by Scarborough Councillors.
Boro will be playing their home games in Bridlington while essential repairs to the Scarborough Sports Village Pitch are carried out. Significant structural issues with the seven year old playing surface were discovered during a recent inspection. It's expected the repair works will take around 44 weeks to complete.
North Yorkshire Council is in talks with the original contractors about the pitch defects but has this week committed to providing a £3.2m backstop fund to ensure the repair works can be completed ahead of the 2026/27 football season.
Councillor Liz Colling is chair of the local area committee, she says all the local councillors backed the plan, but says there does need to be an investigation into how the situation arose in the first place.
"we were unanimous in expressing our support for Scarborough Football Club and recognize the benefits it brings to the town.
And , it's not just economically, but as a fan owned club, the community, it builds and generates, and the wider social and wellbeing benefits that develop from that cannot be overstated.
We look forward to an expedited timeframe so that Scarborough can return back to the sports village as early as possible, but not withstanding the excellent work that moved this on, we still have concerns about how this counter pass in the new build with a normal expected pitch expectancy of 10 years, and we look forward to further details on that at appropriate juncture"
The Council is hoping that the repairs to the Scarborough Sports village pitch will not cost the full three point two million pounds it has allocated to the project.
Councillor Mark Crane says it's an important investment for the Scarborough Community.
"I hope nobody ever accuses this exec again of not spending money in Scarborough. 'Cause we seem to be spending a lot of it in Scarborough.
It's a significant sum of money and one we would've hoped not to have had to spend at this stage.
But it's not just a football club itself, it's all the other groups that use it. And the fact that it's a become a community club, which is a very good thing,.
We certainly hope it's not going to cost us 3.2 million, but I think it will cost us a sum of money.
But I'm supportive of what we're going to do here because it's the right thing to do for Scarborough and this football club."
The club's board have welcomed that decision saying
"This decision removes any uncertainty around the project and allows those involved to begin making arrangements for the work to commence.
We appreciate that this is a significant financial commitment by the council to not only repair the substructure but also to install a FIFA Pro Plus pitch which we require to ensure we can maintain our league status.
We thank the council for this decision and we will continue our regular dialogue with them over the course of the project and keep all our stakeholders updated."
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