Scarborough: Observation wheel granted permission to run until 2025

A wheel was erected on the site during the summer seasons of 2019 and 2020

An observation wheel is to return to a seaside resort in Yorkshire for two summer seasons.

The 104ft-high (32m) wheel had operated on the site of the former Futurist Theatre on Foreshore Road in Scarborough during 2019 and 2020.

Officials said the wheel would run from 1 March to the end of October this year and from March to October 2025.

An 18-hole adventure golf course would also operate at the site, North Yorkshire Council (NYC) said.

The decision comes a week after councillors voted to defer a proposal for a 114ft (35m) high zip line in Scarborough's North Bay over concerns about its visual impact.

The council said the wheel in the South Bay would rotate at a slow speed and support 24 gondolas, with "glazed screens and umbrella-style roof coverings".

'Significant height'

It would operate from 10:00 GMT to 21:30 GMT seven days a week, officers said.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the attraction and all its associated buildings and structures must be entirely removed from the site by the end of October 2025.

Objectors to the scheme claimed it would not attract visitors and was an "inadequate replacement for the Futurist Theatre".

They said a more permanent, solution should be found for the "prime spot" rather than "these unattractive proposals".

However, planning officers said the site was outside the town's designated conservation area and its "significant height" was partially offset by the steep gradients to the rear".

A council report stated the Captain Jack's Adventure Golf course would be positioned next to the wheel and operated by the same company, Observation Wheel UK.

Approving the plans on Thursday, council officers concluded the wheel's presence for two summer seasons was acceptable, noting that it would "allow the site to continue to make a contribution to the vitality of the area".