Site will be very cramped
I accepted a printed invitation from retiring councillor Amanda Robinson to attend an exhibition and “preplanning” event at St James’ Church. It was a comprehensive display showing the proposed football stadium, a totally blank space for the sports village, although from previous exhibitions this is a sports centre, tennis courts, running track and an Olympic size swimming pool.
Adjacent to that will be a non-residential campus to be run by Coventry University (though how they can manage that successfully from such a distance when it appears that Hull University cannot do it from only 45 miles away remains to be seen).
I was shocked to see that instead of the proposed student accommodation as was proposed in the initial planning submission, it is now proposed to build a university technical college.
I consider this to be a grossly over development of this site that will greatly affect the living conditions of residents of Weaponness Valley and Ashburn Rise. I was told that there is no proposal to improve the junction of Valley Road and Ashburn Road because it was deemed unnecessary when it was a (much underused) park and ride.
I got my copy of The Scarborough News on my way home and much to my consternation I read the article that the new head of the university technical college has already been appointed. Is this a presumption on their part or has the application already been rubber stamped by the council’s officers before it goes before the appropriate committee for “approval”?
No wonder the electorate have no confidence or trust in the running of the borough council.
I hope all residents affected will take up this over development with the candidates of the forthcoming local election.
If Hull University are still wanting to run down the Scarborough campus and transfer students back to Hull it would make commonsense for Coventry to amalgamate with Hull and utilise the existing Filey Road Campus, for the university technical college to work with our existing technical college and develop that site, and leave Weaponness to the original proposal for a sports village that won’t be cramped on site and leave more space for car parking rather than the 90 spaces that I saw on the plans.
RM Hird Trinity Gardens
Scarborough