New ambulance station likely to be built near Scarborough Hospital after restrictive covenant lifted

When North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) bought a plot of land from Scarborough Council more than 50 years ago, the Scarborough authority set a clause limiting its use.

As part of the land sale conditions in 1971, Scarborough Council decreed that it could only be used for “educational purposes”.

Located next to Graham School and Woodlands Academy, the land has been used as a playing field for various sports activities.

However, North Yorkshire County Council now wants to sell the land on Woodlands Drive to the Yorkshire Ambulance Service to accommodate the expansion of Scarborough Hospital.

Building work to create a new £47m emergency care centre is currently ongoing. A new £500,000 helipad was opened at Scarborough Hospital in March, which will allow larger helicopters and night landings for the first time.

The approximately 0.48 hectares of land would be operated by the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as a new ambulance station.

Scarborough has an existing ambulance station on Queen Margaret’s Road.

A report prepared for the meeting said that “a Deed of Variation needs to be granted to NYCC so that legally the land can be used for an ambulance station.”

Cllr Liz Colling, cabinet member for inclusive growth, granted the Deed of Variation at a meeting on Monday August 8, allowing the covenant to be lifted. Without it, the new ambulance station was unlikely to go ahead.

The new station is subject to planning permission and a third-party land sale.