Scarborough Station Repairs Progressing with Help from Hawks

Work to repair the roof at Scarborough's railway station is now progressing with the help of a pair of Hawks.

The 14 million pound upgrade started in 2021 but was paused due to funding issues.

The work is now back on and to ovoid any further delays a hawk is being bought in twice a week to stop gulls and crows nesting on the roof over the summer months.

The 15-month-old Harris Hawks are called Maverick and Lilly, they put in two shifts a week at the coastal rail terminus.

Their Handler, Aiden How, says the Hawks are an effective way of deterring the Gulls from nesting.

"We are coming here for the breeding season with the gulls. We're a natural form of pest control. We're using birds to prey to deter and, disrupt any nesting, breeding behaviours, things like that so that they're not on the rooftops.

And hopefully trying to reduce the population on the site. So obviously work can carry on . And it's obviously nice for everybody working and, even the people coming to the station.

He knows when he is on site, he knows he's ready to go pretty much as soon as he comes out, that's it. He knows he's off to work."

Old slates from the station roof have been removed already – and nesting birds could mean work having to stop during the critical summer months of the extensive 12-month project.

Maverick and fellow winged seaside sentry Lily patrol the site for an hour each visit and are rewarded with food from their Rentokil-employed keeper. Their arrival for work at the grade II-listed station always provokes a lively, squawking response from the surrounding birds – which often try standing their ground before sensibly retreating from the area.

The hawks are kept under close control – eating only their pre-prepared food – and their patrol routes have allowed other birds to remain on sections of the roof which will not be touched until after nesting season.

Ann Shannon, scheme project manager for Network Rail, said: “This is a £14 million project which will make a massive difference to this historical station. Nesting would be a problem because if eggs were laid, we’d have to stop our work. As we’re replacing the roof, It could mean us losing two critical months this summer, and the costs would be phenomenal."

Ann says the scheme is now back underway after earlier delays.

"The project was started back in 2021 due to a failure of some glazing on the roof.

There was a pause for quite some time due to funding constraints, , but now Cole Construction are up on the roof, removing slates to repair the full roof,  hopefully we'll get that done in the summer months.

We'll be painting all of the trusses. We'll be repairing all the lightning. We're doing some work in the ticket office and waiting area to the roof, and finally, we're going to be doing some works to the clock tower.

All the glazing units will be all repaired and renewed, so there'll be a lot of light coming into the station.

The key for us is all of this is due to last, substantially longer than it would've had it been left."

The full restoration started in April this year with a target completion of the end of March 2026.

The coastal location has meant other considerations aside from the seaside birds. Specific types of paint and timber are used because of the high salt content in the air. Welsh Ffestiniog slate is being fitted on the roof because it’s tougher and should last about a century, while the valleys between the roof glazing are being made deeper to cope with a one-in-100-year weather event.

Another major consideration has been fire safety. A full fireproof cover has been needed between the platform and roof works – meaning an extensive custom-designed ventilation system was required as fumes from the engines cannot currently escape naturally through the louvre windows. An hourly “air purge” is done through the fans, while some of the ground floor windows have been removed to aid ventilation.

Scott Day, senior project manager at main contractors Colt Construction, says that throughout the complicated project the team have been keen to keep local people informed about the works.

"It's not just a roofing project, it's an improvement of a listed building. We're looking at upgrading the stone work. , we're creating the building to become watertight again.

At the minute it's got many failings with the louvres and the old glazing systems actually failed.

We're looking at obviously improving the station for the public, and making it watertight for the future.

We've been speaking to the public, and the local community and businesses, explained obviously there'd been a delay in the project due to getting funding in place and listed building content. But once that was in place, we've reacted quickly, got the site set up and ensured that everybody knew what was happening and tried to show them what the future of the station will look like once it's complete"

Chris Nutton, major projects director at TransPennine Express, said:

“The repairs to Scarborough station roof will deliver significant improvements to the station and restore the grade II-listed building.

“Our thanks to Network Rail and our partners who are doing all they can to keep this project moving and secure the future of this historic station. We would like to thank our customers for their patience while work is taking place over the next 12 months."

Passengers are advised that while disruption is being kept to a minimum, there may be some localised changes to station access during certain phases of the work. These changes will be sign-posted throughout the station.