Scarborough residents '˜sick with worry' over Futurist Theatre demolition work

It was distressing, and somewhat upsetting, to read in The Scarborough News (January 10) about the council's and the contractor's failure to inform the residents whose homes overlook the Futurist Theatre demolition site, that sheet piling was going to be used to stabilise the cliff.
Demolition of the Futurist Theatre.Demolition of the Futurist Theatre.
Demolition of the Futurist Theatre.

The residents were rightly surprised and concerned as they had been told, before the work started, that sheet piling would not be used.

This failure was, as your editorial comment on page two stated, “unfortunate” as “one of the fundamentals in any project of this scale is... simple communication”.

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However, “simple communication” is not something that the leadership of the council seem to know much about.

Over the years they have inflicted their madcap and usually ill thought-out schemes on the people of Scarborough with little or no consultation or consideration.

It is perhaps the residents who live in the vicinity of the demolition site who will in the end pay the greatest cost.

The council’s disregard of the warnings they received, all indicating that the ground on which the theatre stood is unstable, are now being proved to be correct.

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Although the council have given the residents that live in the area reassurance that the sheet piling will solve the stabilisation problem and their homes, even if damaged, will be repaired by the contractors, what are Town Hall promises really worth?

As your editorial comment says, the residents “must be sick with worry”.

Cllr Norman Murphy

Independent

Northstead Ward

Cross Lane

Scarborough