Letter: Town's historic buildings are its legacy

Why ever not? Even the castle ruins are lovingly maintained.

Would the Pavilion and Balmoral Hotels have been pulled down today? I think not. That is what I call Renaissance.

The Endeavour sailing up Whitby Harbour and the queues hundreds of yards long to walk its decks had the cash tills ringing as never before.

Renaissance took root instantly as an awareness that folks wanted to walk backwards into history.

We do not have the Endeavour here in Scarborough but we do have enthusiasm and an historic building to go with it.

The Futurist has played a fundamental role in entertaining both visitors and locals for nigh on a hundred years. It has also been one of the far too few umbrellas in this town. Can it now to be cast off like a back street slum?

As it is said to be a liability now and will cost a further £4m to demolish surely it makes commercial sense to be shut of it for £1 to a new company of enthusiastic shareholders to bring it back to life for the benefit of the town.

There may be some financial pump priming needed from the council to make up for the years of neglect but there are precedents for that.

There will still be a lot of change left out of the £4m.

The needs of St Catherine’s Hospice and the Rainbow Centre instantly come to mind for supportive grants.

Renaissance is hardly about killing off a goose which has laid plenty of golden eggs for this town over the years. Even less about the new plans for a 180ft tower which will peer down into the Town Hall windows and 24-hour crazy golf on the roof which were revealed at last week’s public meeting!

Freddie Drabble

Scalby Road, Scarborough