Deal ends decade-long planning wrangle over site for new Tesco

Nearly 400 jobs are on the cards with the announcement of a deal to end a planning saga which has dragged on for more than a decade –though the scheme was given a mixed response by business leaders yesterday.

The way is now clear to redevelop the former St Mary's Hospital site in Dean Road, Scarborough, following an agreement announced yesterday between Scarborough Council and Tesco.

Councillors have accepted an offer from Tesco and Assura Properties Ltd for the council depot on Dean Road, next door to the old St Mary's site.

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As part of the deal, both the Dean Road site and the former St Mary's Hospital site which Assura already owns will be sold to Tesco.

Nick Edwards, Scarborough Council's head of finance and asset management, said: "Full council's decision to accept the offer from Tesco and Assura, which was in line with Cabinet's recommendation, is the best sale we could have achieved for the disposal of our Dean Road depot site.

"The type of development that will end up on the site will be entirely down to the proposals Tesco comes forward with, and more importantly, what it is able to secure planning permission for."

Tesco corporate affairs manager Matt Magee said: "Our plans for this key site will result in more than 370 new jobs and we also have a commitment to getting local people back into work.

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"The new store, which will replace our existing Westwood store, will also provide a better shopping experience to our customers by providing a wider range of great products. We expect these plans to get more shoppers using Dean Road which will help other businesses too."

Vice chairman of Scarborough and District Chamber of Trade Victoria Clark said: "It is the smaller shops who are going to feel the pinch. It depends what Tesco bring in and whether they sell clothes.

"It might bring in more people from out of town. It could be good news in that respect. It will extend the town centre and that might make it more of an open place for people and more accessible."

"This will be bigger supermarket with more staff and will probably be open 24 hours. Whatever happens it is going to have some sort of knock on effect. But there is always positives and this could open up the town to people who have not come before and hopefully produce more jobs."

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Local trader Chris Bostock said: "Rather than having a derelict site hanging around it would be better if it was developed and it could well bring more people into town so they might shop with other businesses as well."

He was pleased that Tesco was replacing one store with another limiting the impact on small traders.

The council says both sales are subject to Tesco achieving planning permission for a supermarket development which would cover both sites. But if everything works out, it will end more than a decade of uncertainty over the future of Dean Road.

St Mary's Hospital, a former work house which became a maternity hospital and later a psychiatric unit, closed in the 1990s and was demolished ready to build Scarborough's new police station.

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However, the deal fell through because it fell foul of Home Office guidelines on the procurement of major public service contracts.

The hospital site was subsequently laid out as a "temporary" car park, which it has been ever since.

Last year councillors agreed in principle to the disposal of council land at Dean Road, Scarborough.

A development brief was prepared for the site and approved by the full council.