Alpamare: Council urged to take legal action over Scarborough attraction loan

Benchmark Leisure Ltd, which runs Alpamare in Scarborough, received the loan from Scarborough Borough Council in 2013

North Yorkshire Council has been urged to take legal action after £9m of public money was loaned to a firm behind a major tourist attraction which went into administration.

Benchmark Leisure Ltd, which runs Alpamare in Scarborough, received the loan from Scarborough Borough Council in 2013.

Last month, the firm announced it had gone into administration.

A full meeting of the council heard the matter was being investigated.

The £14m park opened in 2016 and featured indoor and outdoor pools, waterslides and a spa. In 2022, figures showed the firm still owed £7.8m of public money.

Councillors were told it was impossible for the authority to respond to "perfectly proper" questions regarding the loan, the possibility of nearly £8m of public money being lost, or even if the facility was being adequately maintained without potentially impacting on proceedings.

'Do whatever we can'

However, an investigation would examine the historic decisions of Scarborough Borough Council's Conservative administration, including several serving North Yorkshire Council members, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Alison Hume, the Labour parliamentary candidate for Scarborough and Whitby, told the meeting she expected a legal investigation into the loan, which was believed to have been unsecured.

Ms Hume also called on the authority to outline what it was doing to ensure the facility was reopened as soon as possible as Scarborough now had just one swimming pool for a population of 109,000.

"Living in a coastal area means it is critical our children learn to swim, but hundreds of children now have been left without lessons," she said.

The authority's leader, Councillor Carl Les, said the council recognised the importance of the asset, both to the visitor economy and to local residents.

"This council will do whatever we can, whatever the ownership in the future, whoever the operator may be in the future, but we are bound by the rules of receivership at the moment and I can't say anything more at the moment," he added.