Final curtain for ‘blot on Scarborough’s sea front’

IT’s not among the top 10 buildings in Scarborough. It might not even make the top 100. Yet there is something about the South Bay’s rather unlovely Futurist building which is stirring a groundswell of protest in the seaside resort.

Everyone who’s been inside the theatre cum cinema in the last couple of years knows that it has been in need of significant investment. The auditorium was a little shabby and when there were just a handful of families watching the latest, slightly fuzzy, blockbuster it took a little vision to imagine this was the same place where The Beatles and Shirley Bassey once played.

So when Scarborough Borough Council, which has subsidised the venue to the tune of £80,000 a year, announced its closure it didn’t exactly come as a surprise. The likelihood is that it will be demolished, paving a way for a new development, but one which almost certainly won’t include a theatre. However, while the Futurist has become a bit of a blot on the seafront, the realisation that the 92-year-old venue might be about to be erased for good 
has spurred a group of residents into action.

With the council having agreed to mothball the site for three months, the campaign group is currently putting together a business case for the Futurist. However, that would only secure the venue until the end of this year and that they say is simply not good enough.

“The council has previously admitted that to have the theatre boarded up would have a serious detrimental effect on Scarborough’s image as a leading resort and would seriously damage the image of the seafront and the strength of the holiday industry,” says Patricia David, campaign co-ordinator. “So what happens? The theatre is now boarded up and we know it’s already having an impact.

“According to the latest plans there has been reassurance that the new development will be up and running in 2015, but they are living in cloud cuckoo land. As far as we are aware there isn’t even a developer interested in the site. Once there is, they will have to submit plans which may well be objected to. At the earliest I think it will be 2016 and that’s a long time to have a blight on our resort.”

Ideally, the group would like to see the council make the Futurist the subject of a community asset transfer. It’s something which has worked up and down the country with town halls, libraries and redundant schools having all enjoyed a new lease of life as community hubs.

Not possible, say the council, although they have been reluctant to elaborate on the reasons why. Quite possibly it’s down to simple economics. The Futurist, they say, doesn’t just need a lick of paint and some tender loving care, it needs a complete overhaul which they’ve totted up will cost £7m. Compare that to the revenue likely to be generated from the venue and the finances simply don’t add up.

“The council keeps trotting out this figure, but whenever we ask them where they’ve got it from and what it is made up of they stonewall us. We’d like to know, because we’ve had our own experts look at the site and they estimate the cost of repairs at £3.5m.

“I honestly think they have plucked a figure out of the air and are using it to scare potential operators.

“It’s the same with the issue of a community asset transfer. They have said it’s not suitable, but they won’t say why. We’ve asked whether they mean the Futurist together with the shops which are part of the building is not suitable or whether they mean just the theatre. We’re still waiting for an answer.”

Scarborough Borough Council refused to comment on the issues raised by the campaigners, who also claim resistance among Scarborough’s wider populace is growing. An initial petition attracted 5,000 signatures and when they were told that for the support to be officially acknowledged it needed to be on an official council document they took to the streets again.

Within a few days they had 6,500 names and now it’s running at around 10,000.

Development consultants as far back as 2010 identified the land the Futurist stands on as a “fantastic opportunity site”, but with the property market still reeling from the credit crunch it didn’t make much sense to push ahead with a sale.

However, the campaigners insist that while the location may make it a prime site, the land itself is not without problems.

“There is coastal erosion all along this stretch and the Futurist has in fact been protecting this site,” says Patricia.

“When it was first built they had to pour in layers of concrete right up to the town hall – 2,500 tonnes of the stuff.

“Demolish the building and take out all the foundations and you’re selling a piece of land with inherent landslip problems. Suddenly that doesn’t look like such a good investment.”

Again no comment from the council.

What it has said is that 80 per cent of the shows in a typical Futurists programme could be staged at the Spa just a few minutes walk away. They have also highlighted the fact that very few seaside theatres are self-sufficient and if they insisted on a replacement venue in any new development it would risk becoming a white elephant.

However, the main thrust of the campaigners’ frustration lies in the fact they have a working blueprint of how the theatre could be run successfully and point to the reinvention of the Stockport Plaza as evidence.

Built in 1932 it’s one of the few surviving Super Cinema Variety Theatres. Sold to Mecca Bingo in the 1960s when the company decided to move on in the late 1990s the building also risked being demolished.

It was saved thanks to a group of like-minded individuals and the local council who worked together to set up a charitable trust. Grants were secured to pay for the restoration of the Grade II listed building and 13 years on it’s not only open most nights, but it also pays for itself.

“We all moan about buildings previous generations allowed to be demolished and I think when it became clear that the Plaza was in danger it really touched a nerve with people in the town,” says general manager Ted Doan, who in a previous life worked for Apollo Leisure, the company which ran the Futurist.

“It is an amazing success story and that’s down to the many volunteers who not only saved it in the first place but who continue to give their time to the place. When you see a thousand people pouring down the street to watch a show it really demonstrates what a difference a theatre can make to the wider economy. It has an impact on the bars, on the restaurants and on the hotels. The ripple effect is obvious.”

But there are some big differences between the two towns. The Plaza is Stockport’s only venue, while Scarborough has the Stephen Joseph Theatre, the Spa, the Open Air Theatre as well as another cinema. However, Ted remains convinced that in the right hands the Futurist could have a sustainable future.

“It’s about diversifying. As well as showing classic films and staging live shows we also hire out the venue for corporate events and weddings. What people sometimes forget is that we are only custodians of these buildings. We should be doing our best to protect them, they are part of a places social and cultural history.”

It’s a point which the Scarborough campaigners are becoming tired of reiterating.

“There is often talk of council owned this and council owned that,” says Patricia.

“Let’s be clear the council don’t own anything. The people of Scarborough owns these assets and the council is merely the administrator.

“It should be acting as a caretaker and doing what’s in the best interest of the people of Scarborough. I wish they would be honest about their position because at the moment the way they are acting is an insult to our intelligence.

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