£16m scheme to stabilise cliffs behind Scarborough Spa officially complete

The Scarborough Spa Stabilisation Scheme will safeguard the future of the town’s iconic Spa complex and some 380 homes and 38 businesses on the cliff above it, valued at more than £110m.

The scheme has been mainly funded by a Defra grant of £11.6m, administered by the Environment Agency, with the difference being made up by contributions from Scarborough Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council.

The work has involved inserting 4,585 soil nails to reinforce the cliff’s slope to address the instabilities that had been found.

A further 225 steel piles were also used and a large number of trees removed and more than 3,500 tonnes of topsoil placed back on the cliff.

Drainage and new footpaths were also installed as part of the project.

The project marked its official completion today when the borough’s Mayor, Cllr Hazel Lynskey, unveiled a plaque marking the success of the scheme.

Scarborough Council cabinet member Cllr Janet Jefferson (Ind) said the scheme removed the fear of another Holbeck Hall Hotel-style disaster when the property not far from the Spa collapsed in 1993 following a landslip.

She said: “The residents first and foremost now have security for their properties. Some 380 properties, 38 prominent businesses including hotels, were always in fear of what could happen.

“The whole cliff could cascade and it is no good saying it couldn’t happen because we had to watch Holbeck happen. I can’t praise the feat of engineering enough that has gone into this project.

“A £16m investment is an investment for 100 years and we now have that secured for our economy, our tourism and this is jewel in the crown as you can stand on the cliff and get the wow factor as you look out to sea.”

The work has also been praised by the residents who have seen their homes secured by the work.

David Auton, chairman of the South Cliff Community Group, said residents had been living in constant fear of a cliff collapse.

He said: “For the residents who live on the South Cliff, the work is unbelievably important. For the properties directly above [the Spa] there was the constant threat of losing your property and waking up one morning to find you were down on the beach. To those residents and businesses, it is very reassuring now to know that the cliffs have been stabilised. Hopefully, it will be many generations before they have to be worked on again.”

Later this year, a £5m Heritage Lottery Fund-backed project will begin to redevelop the South Cliff Gardens now that the stabilisation has been completed.

Balfour Beatty carried out the work on behalf of Scarborough Council.

Ed Hinton, Environment Agency senior advisor, praised the amount of work that had gone on behind the scenes to get the scheme off the ground.

He said: “The scheme was 10 years in the making, with a lot of upfront work around getting the business case together to secure the funding, designing the scheme takes time so it has only really been two years of building but there are eight years prior to get to that point.

“We are really pleased to have been part of this scheme that has been delivered and it is a great testament to all those different organisations who worked together to deliver this.”