Scarborough cliffs: Repairs to pave way for new chalets

The Clock Cafe has been in business for more than a century

The cliffs above Scarborough beach are to be made safe at a cost of £500,000, allowing beach chalets destroyed in a landslip to be repaired.

The chalets at the resort's South Bay were cordoned off last March after a retaining wall collapsed, leaving them leaning at a 45-degree angle.

A further slip in November destroyed most of the Grade II listed buildings.

Scarborough Borough Council is set to approve plans to repair the area so the chalets can be restored.

A report written for the cabinet by the council's project manager, Chris Bourne, said the retaining wall below the Clock Cafe would be reinstated under the plans.

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Mr Bourne said: "This solution would create space to allow 11 chalets to be reconstructed on the same footprint as the previous chalets.

"Given their listed status the reinstatement of the chalets would need to be on a like-for-like basis although internal improvements would be allowed."

The chalets were left leaning at a 45-degree angle

The cost of reinstating the wall is estimated to be £473,000, which will be funded by the council's insurance reserve on top of £128,000 set aside in 2018 for the chalets' demolition.

The price of replacing the chalets would require the council to find a further £243,000, with a number of ways to cover the cost to be investigated by the authority's officers.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said these include selling the 11 chalets on a 30-year lease for £30,000 each or for the council to keep the buildings to provide a constant source of income.

If the plan is approved it is proposed that the demolition would start "immediately" with the replacement wall scheduled to be completed by July 2020.

A crack appeared along the path after a retaining wall collapsed