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Swimming Pool Land Sale Challenged

Letters August 29, 2022 Letters, Scarborough Borough Council

Swimming Pool Land Sale Challenged

A Letter to the Editor from WILLIAM PARKIN of Staithes, responding to last week’s article “£1M Swimming Pool Sale Called In”, and highlighting a minor mystery concerning the financial prudence of the sale of the site of the former Indoor Swimming Pool and adjacent carpark – plus a useful suggestion.

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Dear Editor,

My understanding is that the former Indoor Swimming Pool at North Bay cost around £500,000 to demolish, which has provided a level site for something to be built. A hotel seems a reasonable project and I am sure that Mr Thomas’s company will make a fabulous job of providing quality accommodation.

Within your article there is a link (http://nyenquirer.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/22180-Disposal-of-former-indoor-swimmng-pool-20220726.pdf see page 2) which shows the following map of the site that the Council is proposing to sell for £1m, to include 137 car-parking spaces.

Those car-parking spaces are fully used during School holidays, with overflow onto the grassed area opposite.

This must generate around £140,000 – £150,000 annually in Council revenue. Even on the car park alone, without the hotel, at a £1m purchase price, this represents a 14%-15% return on capital invested – with the hotel site for free. (The Council cannot be unaware that multi-storey carparks are now available in prefabricated form, reducing build-time and reducing build costs to as little as £8K-£9K per bay, over three or more floors).

If the site is sold, this revenue will disappear – leaving a shortfall – and the visitors will lose reasonable distance parking from the North Bay Beach, the North Bay Railway, the Open Air Theatre and Peasholm Park – PLUS whatever is to be developed on the former Atlantis site.

I appreciate that other car-parking facilities are mentioned, but none of this is ‘now’ parking – and we all know that there have been unfulfilled promises over the redevelopment of the Atlantis site for over 20 years.

This is clearly NOT a good deal for residents and must surely be kicked out by the Scrutiny Committee.

However, if Mr Thomas’s company was to build a multi-storey car park on the site (on three levels), then that would be a Win/Win for tourists and hotel guests.

Finally, why has the site not been put out for tender via sealed bids? I would have thought that would have been a legal requirement?

Yours sincerely,

William Parkin

Staithes