Scarborough & District Civic Society CIVIC NEWS May 2013 YHACS WELCOMES GARY VERITY Welcome to Yorkshire have been instrumental in bringing the Tour de France to our county next year, they have a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show and have received international recognition for their work. This recognition eventually extended to Somerset where Gary was asked to comment on a new slogan they had thought up to promote their county. Somerset people were fed up of people passing through Somerset on their way to Devon and Cornwall. Their campaign featured an image of a ruddy faced farmer sitting outside a picturesque thatched cottage, drinking a pint of best Somerset cider. The suggested slogan was, ‘Don’t pass through Somerset, let Somerset pass through you’. On Civic Societies, Gary Verity saw us as the Jiminy Crickets of the region; we should, like Pinocchio’s partner, ‘be the conscience that should always be our guide’. In his spare time Gary Verity is an award winning Dales sheep farmer and lives on a working farm in Coverdale. Since his late wife Helen was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2004 he has raised more than £500,000 for cancer charities in By Peter Cooper Yorkshire; for this work he was awarded the title of Yorkshireman of the Year in 2012. Gary Verity, the Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, was the guest speaker at the latest meeting of the Yorkshire and Humber Association Civic Society with Civic Voice of Civic Societies (YHACS), held in York’s splendid Guildhall on 20 th April. All Scarborough Civic Society members are members of Civic Voice which is offering our In an inspirational and amusing speech, Gary members free admission to English Heritage Verity demonstrated his passion for his home and National Trust properties. county by explaining what Welcome to Yorkshire does and why people should come to Yorkshire. If you would like obtain your free passes They must be getting something right; in two please either email [email protected] years the value of Yorkshire’s tourism economy or phone 01723 379912. has risen from £5.9bn to £7bn. (Of interest is that We can issue a Single Admission Pass per member £2.1bn of visitor expenditure is generated and the pass is subject to certain conditions annually by heritage tourism in the region.) The county's tourism industry employs almost a quarter of a million people with 216 million visits to Yorkshire each year. He explained that Welcome to Yorkshire receives no government funding but uses its influence to promote the county nationally and internationally. Yorkshire’s population is the same as Scotland (about 5.5 million) and much larger than Wales or Northern Ireland, all of which have government ENGLISH HERITAGE funded tourist boards. Scarborough & District Civic Society Secretary’s Report for plants, shrubs and trees including the ongoing By Adrian Perry maintenance of the Borough’s heritage plants That the Parks Service be encouraged to embrace new ways of working and that these be subject to A new time-piece has appeared monitoring by the “new ways of working” group on the Central Tramway. As a and ongoing review by Scrutiny part of general refurbishment works a cupola, (which includes clocks) has been This report was unanimously approved and should rd installed on the top station building by replacing a have gone to Cabinet on April 23 and then on to redundant flue tower. I think it looks really full council for their approval. However Cllr. Fox splendid and is a useful addition to the street made a statement at the Cabinet meeting stating scene. (Photo page 8). that many issues had not been fully explored and so another team of councillors would be looking at It’s always good to read in The Scarborough News the operation with a broader scope. The future of that a new attraction is planned for the town but Manor Road Nurseries is still in the balance. not so exciting when you realise that the At our Annual General Meeting a number of Waterpark was approved last August and nothing members’ concerns were raised: has yet happened. In the latest article about the 1. The Rock Armour planned for the beach in Waterpark new dates are mentioned but when front of the Spa Complex you read on it is clear that there is still some legal 2. Street Clutter agreement to be discussed. Cllr Fox is quoted as saying “We are going through a legal process 3. Traffic gridlock in Scarborough which should then allow an agreement to be put These are not easy topics but they will be before full council on May 13” Why do we always reviewed by your executive committee and we have to have complex arrangements? The last welcome such input so that we can try to address time there were such discussions our councillors such issues. were ‘forced’ to sell the freehold for the Sands Andrea Smith and Chris Perry have resigned from development. What trap are we heading towards the Executive Committee and were thanked for this time round? Perhaps I shouldn’t be so cynical their valuable contribution. and we really are seeing the much awaited scheme move towards completion. Let’s hope so Planning Report because we really need an all-weather attraction Spring 2013 in Scarborough. By Chris Perry The Londesborough Lodge saga continues; it now Update of previous report: seems that we cannot find a buyer for the Bramcote Pavilion (at the corner of Belvedere property without including part of Valley Gardens Road and Holbeck Hill) the applications for in the sale. The council issued a legal notice Conservation Area consent to demolish the advising the public to contact them if they had pavilion 11/02355/CA and to build four flats on any comment about the sale of this part of our the site 11/02248/FL have been withdrawn. park, so on behalf of the Civic Society I wrote Construction of one 3 bedroomed house at 10 objecting to the sale of this public open space and Weaponness Park 12/01028/FL. The society has received no reply. This is another case of objected strongly to this garden-grabbing proposal Scarborough sleep walking into an impossible in the Weaponness Conservation Area. situation. If we planned to sell Londesborough Application refused . Lodge we should have been aware that the lack of Proposed extra care facility of 60 flats and land around the property would be a major communal facilities at Middle Deepdale 12/02023/ stumbling block. Perhaps the real reason why a FL for Sanctuary Housing. The Society has made buyer cannot be found is the condition of the negative comments about the 3 storey height of building! We suggested a long time ago that we these elderly persons flats, their institutional should have temporary residents in the building to design and the impact on neighbouring single and guard against its decline. We even provided two storey properties. Application permitted. details to SBC of “Property Guardians” an organisation specialising in the protection of Proposal to site one 77.9 metre (tip height) wind empty buildings but SBC preferred to leave the turbine at Willerby Wold Pig Farm, Old Malton building empty. Road, Staxton 12/01026/FUL. This application refers to land in Ryedale District Council area. The Manor Road Nurseries Task Group reported to The Society has objected. Application refused. SBC’s Resources Scrutiny Committee and Proposal to install curfew gates at The Bolts recommended the following along with many between 78 Eastborough and The Golden Grid, other excellent ideas: Sandside 12/02476/FL. The Society has made That the Nursery and in-house service be retained negative comments about this application, which and be responsible for all of the Council’s needs has now been withdrawn. 2 Heritage A Piece of History in Scarborough THE SITWELL LIBRARY A section of William Holman Hunt's painting of By Chris Perry London Bridge shows one of the 100 incense This specialised library is found in Woodend burners filled by Perfumer Eugene Rimmel that Creative Workspace, located in The Crescent, lined the bridge to disguise the less than fragrant Scarborough. aroma of the Thames on the evening of 10 March Wood End was built as a private house in 1835. It 1863, when Prince Edward (1901 became King was purchased in 1870 by Lady Louisa Sitwell, Edward VII) married Princess Alexandra of who lived there with her children, George and Denmark. Eugene Rimmel's perfume was a Florence. Lady Louisa was a young widow; her novelty in public festivals, having usually been son, George, had succeeded to his father’s used to purify and perfume the air in ball rooms, baronetcy at the age of two. Lady Louisa theatres, Windsor Castle etc. On this special extended Wood End by adding a spacious double- occasion Rimmel's perfumed oils were burnt in height conservatory. tripods and lasted for three or four hours through In 1882 Sir George Sitwell (1860 – 1943) further wind and rain. The streams of incense floated extended Wood End by building the library wing through the air, pleasing and quietening the beyond the conservatory. The library is eagerness of the jostling crowd and calming their Elizabethan in style and the ceiling is a copy of soaring spirits. that in the library at Renishaw Hall, the ancestral William Holman Hunt's wonderful painting was home of the Sitwells in Derbyshire. In 1886 Sir shown to members of Scarborough Decorative George married Lady Ida Denison whose parents and Fine Arts Society by speaker, William owned Londesborough Lodge, also located on The Forrester of Guildford, who gave a talk on Crescent.