'Commercial suicide' warning over reviving seaside theatre

Leisure expert Mark Rothery argued that instead Scarborough Council should opt for a much wider scheme to provide a gateway between the town centre and the seafront – which could involve the town hall becoming a casino.

Mr Rothery delivered his findings at a public meeting of the council "brains trust" set up to decide the future of Scarborough's biggest commercial venue, which has been under caretaker management since leisure giant Apollo pulled out.

Until now, four options had been on the table for redeveloping the Futurist site. All involved a new theatre. But Mr Rothery maintained yesterday that none were viable.

Although there is a campaign to keep the Futurist as a theatre, Mr Rothery agreed this would just be "throwing good money after bad" and the private sector, whose interest was crucial, "would not want to know".

He said: "Including a theatre in any development brief would be commercial suicide in my opinion. The scheme would be hamstrung from day one by including something that does not work."

He also believe that whatever entertainment facilities could be provided on the Futurist site would merely duplicate those already being provided at Scarborough Spa and the newly revamped Open Air Theatre.

His findings showed that the financial downside for charge payers, who would effectively had to pay for any subsidy, would run into millions of pounds.

Ironically, the credit crunch and fall in demand for building services and materials had slashed the projected costs from two years ago in redeveloping the site.

But the council would still be looking at large losses if it chose any option the included a theatre – ranging from 9m to more than 30m, depending which scheme was chosen.

Mr Rothery said the prospects of the theatre attracting private investment at the moment were zero because the building was in such a sorry state.

Redevelopment was needed – but so far the development brief had been shackled to the idea of creating a 1,500 seat, 8,000 square metre theatre, he explained.

This was getting in the way of a bigger vision of developing a much wider site, to include not only the Futurist complex but the land above – St Nicholas Gardens, the council car park, the town hall and its King Street extension.

Mr Rothery maintained that giving developers a free hand to develop this whole area would be much more attractive to the private sector.

He urged the review team to grasp at the opportunity to create a new gateway between the town centre and the seafront, probably centred on a casino, possibly in the town hall itself.

With a casino as the anchor business for a new complex, then would come a hotel, bar restaurants, and other attractions trading on the twin benefits of the sea view and town centre footfall.

However, Coun David Jeffels, chairman of the task group, underlined that no decisions would be made until they presented their recommendations to council in the autumn.

In a message to the public gallery, he added: "Transparency is the key word. We are a listening council. We want to hear what you have to say because this site is so important to Scarborough's future."