Open letter to the Chancellor from North Yorkshire business and political leaders
SCARBOROUGH is the largest holiday resort on the Yorkshire coast and was Britain’s first seaside resort.
The town will celebrate 400 years as a firm family holiday favourite for millions of people in 2026. The town is the most deprived area of North Yorkshire and parts of it are amongst the most deprived in the country.
However, we have grasped every opportunity and earned the trust of the people and partners here who hold the key to future local growth.
In a public consultation this summer, hundreds of local people and businesses took time to help us develop a ten-year plan based around their key priorities.
Thanks to their input we were at an advanced stage with planning and ready to submit to government ahead of the deadline. These priorities were to unlock the £20 million long-term plan funding for Scarborough promised by the government.
A transformational opportunity for this seaside town with initiatives which would make tangible differences to local lives and opportunity. But just as we were about to submit our plan for August 1, 2024 – government instructed us to stop.
Since then, we have tried repeatedly to engage with government on behalf of the town’s people and businesses to make the point that we are ready to move forward and it is a real concern that with no response we will lose momentum, interest and funding to transform the town.
To be clear, without this vital funding we cannot move forward.
So, on behalf of the town we serve and the people we are passionate about we appeal directly for clarity in your autumn statement on October 30 on Scarborough’s £20 million. We also ask you to work with us directly on our shared mission to drive local growth and to be clear with urgency about how much of this investment we will see and when.
At all times we have followed and met the government guidelines in your submission process and we now ask that the funds be released to us so that Scarborough can drive forward and create economic growth for the good of all
We look forward to hearing from you.
David Kerfoot CBE DL – Chair of Scarborough Town Board
Names of co-signatories to this letter:
Richard Boyes, Managing Director, Boyes and Vice Chair of Scarborough Town Board
Rosemary Du Rose – Chief Executive, Beyond Housing
Adrian Perry – President and Chairman of Scarborough District Civic Society
Cllr Liz Colling – Falsgrave and Stepney Division, Chair Scarborough and Whitby Area Constituency Committee, North Yorkshire Council
Cllr John Ritchie – Woodlands Division, North Yorkshire Council
Cllr Rich Maw – Weaponness and Ramshill Division, North Yorkshire Council
Cllr Tony Randerson – Eastfield Division, North Yorkshire Council
Cllr Eric Broadbent – Northstead Division, North Yorkshire Council
Cllr Derek Bastiman – Scalby and the Coast Division, North Yorkshire Council
Cllr Subash Sharma – Newby Division, North Yorkshire Council
Graeme Young – Chief Executive, Scarborough RUFC
Caroline Routh – Joint Chief Executive, Stephen Joseph Theatre
Richard Askew – Askew Brook Limited
Jo Thompson – Managing Director Spectrum Cleaning Solutions/Director Scarborough Business Ambassadors
Simon Bull – Managing Director, Castle Group Ltd and Chair, Scarborough Business Ambassadors
Aaron Padgham – Director of Saint Cecilia’s Care Group
Mike Padgham – Chairman of the Independent Care Group
Waves Crookes & Laura Robinson –Directors and Co-founders, Seagrown
Jeff Smith – Managing Director, Osprey Plastics
Simon Rhatigan – Managing Director, Bike and Boot
Louise Scott – Director, Castle Employment
Owen Mahoney – Branch Manager, Handelsbanken
Brian Davidson – The Grainery/Falcon Inn
Gavin Hepburn – CEO – Dale Power Solutions
Toby Hyam – Scarborough Town Centre Team and Local Business Owner
Tom Fox – President, Royal British Legion Scarborough Branch, Former Leader Scarborough Borough Council
