Rescue plan to save £6m youth centre means fair has to move

The new Scarborough youth centre called The Street was planned on the site of the former registry office in Dean Road, near the former St Mary's Hospital site, after Coast and Moors Voluntary Action secured funds.

Assura, the present owner of the cleared St Mary's site, had advised that it could not commit to a sale of any of its land pending the outcome of the joint marketing exercise being undertaken with Scarborough Borough Council for its site and the Dean Road Depot.

Now the council and the land owners have clinched a deal with Tesco to re-develop the whole area, putting the whole scheme, which secured 4m of Government funding in December, in jeopardy.

Now the authority has found an alternative plot of land to the rear of the William Street Coach Park and is to discuss letting The Street have it for 375,000.

On Tuesday, council leaders are being urged to give the go-ahead for the deal to avoid the risk of the 6m, scraped together over recent years, being clawed back.

But the price of the deal will be that a travelling fair which attracts thousands of visitors to the site every autumn, will have to be held somewhere else from next year.

The council's head of technical services, John Riby, said: "The fact that the original site was not available could have prevented the project from proceeding."

But work between the county council and the voluntary group had led to the 3,100sq metre patch being found.

"Sale of the land will enable the project to proceed and secure significant capital investment in the town," Mr Riby added.

The building will include a sports hall, cafe, chill-out space, meeting and classrooms, interview rooms, offices and managed workspace, creative arts studio and climbing wall.

According to Street bosses, thousands of people will benefit within the first three years of the centre opening.

They include 3,000 young people who will be given the chance to pursue healthier lifestyles through programmes involving physical activities, healthy eating and cooking, health information, mental health support, self-help groups and improved sexual health.

More than 2,000 young people will feel safer and avoid anti-social behaviour through evening and weekend opening hours, a wide range of activities and programmes targeting behaviour and personal safety.

Jobs will have been found for 750 who take part in training programmes, while 1,200 young people will participate in events to help local communities.

A further 1,500 youngsters will have taken part in Sports Leader Awards, Catering NVQs, Youth Arts Awards and National Open College Network Courses.

However, if councillors approve plans to letting Coast and Moors Voluntary Action have the site, it will displace the annual fun fair held on the coach park every autumn.

This year's fair will be unaffected, but that would not be the case in future years.

Mr Riby added: "The licence for the fair enables the council to terminate the agreement, but requires the council to work with the operator to consider alternative sites.

"Initial discussions have been held with the operator who has indicated that he would wish to consider alternative sites or simply reduce the size of the fair and retain it on the residue of the site. "

The sale of the land will produce a capital receipt of 375,000 – although 60,000 will be needed to change the layout of the rest of the parking area, including overhauling the CCTV camera coverage.