Curtain up on theatre rescue campaign

Campaigners are calling for Scarborough’s Futurist theatre, on Foreshore Road in the resort, to be preserved amid plans to redevelop the site.

The 2,100-seat venue has played traditional seaside shows for nine decades, hosting some of the biggest names in showbusiness including The Beatles and Morecambe and Wise, while singer Gary Barlow performed there earlier this year.

The theatre was built in 1921 and has been leased to its current operators since 2002.

But supporters say it has been allowed to deteriorate year after year through a lack of investment by the council which has owned it since 1985.

Yesterday councillors in the town agreed to look at alternatives to regenerate the site – seen as a vital part of the town – after a report in July said the theatre had an “unsustainable” future amid claims it struggles against competition including the newly-revitalised Scarborough Spa and Open Air Theatre and the Stephen Joseph Theatre.

They decided to seek expressions of interest over options for the 4.2-acre site, which has been valued at £335,000, and runs from St Nicholas Street, through the King Street car park and down the cliff to the theatre which is on the seafront.

Supporters of redevelopment say its links give it potential for an “iconic” replacement.

Scarborough Council leader Councillor Tom Fox, who received the petition yesterday from campaigners, said it would be taken into account when decisions were made over the site’s future.

He said councillors had agreed to seek expressions of interest from developers for work on the site.

These could include plans for a theatre but he stressed any proposals “had to be viable”.

“No decision has been made as to what happens on the site,” he said.

“The decisions we have to make, have to be for the right reasons.”