Celebrations as Age UK reopens on Scarborough's Aberdeen Walk following major revamp

The charity’s offices and training rooms on Aberdeen Walk closed last July to allow a complete revamp of the three-storey building.

The refurbished space has now got a lift connecting the first two floors, a new seating area on the groundfloor, disabled toilets and a kitchen to host cooking classes.

Chief Executive Julie Macey-Hewitt said: “It’s a proper community hub. Before much of the upper floor was unused because it was difficult for clients to go up the stairs whereas now every room is accessible and it gives us the chance to run more activities so the idea is to offer more services and expand.”

After being based in Aberdeen Walk for over 20 years, the 11 staff are keen to let the public know they’re back offering veteran services, employability services for over 50s and hosting activities such as coffee mornings and knit and natter groups.

On Saturday, the charity help a grand opening event attended by BBC Look North presenter, Harry Gration, who cut the ribbon and took part in the celebrations.

Julie added: “One of my trustees had done some work with him so she approached him to see if he’d come to us and because he’s very supportive of Age UK as a charity he said he’d love to come.

“We had a fantastic cake, some chair-based activities, tombola, there was a nice atmosphere and we were joined by some of our service users and volunteers and people who just happened to walk past.”

The renovation works, which cost a whopping £200,000, were funded through a grant from the European Union as well as grants from The Tudor Trust, Screwfix and North Yorkshire County Council.

The office will officially reopen on Monday February 3. During winter it will be open Monday to Friday from 10am to 2pm.