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Fears over Blue Flag loss as centre work drags on
CONCERNED residents and members of the town's tourism association fear Whitby's Blue Flag bid could be in jeopardy if new beach facilities are not ready for Easter.
Scarborough Council has spent the past nine months and around 180,000 renovating a disused caf close to the beach huts on North Promenade.
Its improved facilities for tourists and locals will comprise new foot showers, baby changing facilities, toilets with disabled facilities, a lifeguard lookout station and letting facilities for a shop premises.
Scarborough Council says the building work is due to be completed by Good Friday.
But the Victorian block of toilet facilities on the beach are all boarded up and the toilets on Khyber Pass are also closed for repairs, meaning there are no toilets close by apart from those in Whitby Pavilion or on the West Cliff.
Blue Flags, which are awarded to coastal destinations which have achieved the highest quality in water, facilities, safety, environment and management are announced in May based on last year’s water quality.
Assessors will be visiting Whitby’s beach over the summer season to check the Blue Flag criteria is being met.
In Scarborough Council’s Borough News winter and spring edition in 2006, the authority admits the new centre with its vastly improved facilities “is vital if Whitby is to retain its much-coveted Blue Flag award.”
Tom Broderick, who runs the Reading Rooms in Flowergate, has taken a keen interest in the project.
He said: “It is insulting people’s intelligence telling us the Beach Management Centre is going to plan and will be open for Easter.
“As a multiple business rate payer and residential rate payer, I cannot sit by any longer and allow complete and utter fools to flutter away our hard-earned cash.
“This project should have been completed years ago. We are now in serious danger of losing our Blue Flag status.”
Members of the Whitby and District Tourism Association (WDTA) say it will be a miracle if the building work is completed in time for Easter.
The stormy weather and high seas have set builders working on the beach management centre back, but the WDTA say it is no excuse the attraction, which was given planning permission in 2005, has not yet been completed.
With just two weeks until Easter, the WDTA who have inspected the building themselves, said it appears to be a shell with no interior facilities installed, no windows and walls partially missing.
John Freeman of the WDTA said they welcome the new facilities once they are in place, but added: “There’s absolutely no way they will be ready for Easter.
“There is a real shortage of toilets and amenities in the town.
“The toilets on Khyber Pass are shut and the toilet block on the beach is all boarded up.
“We will be writing further to Scarborough Council about our concerns.”
The original plans for the building, which was first estimated to cost 290,000, raised a storm of protests after it was proposed the centre should be located further along the beach, blocking the view of some of the beach chalets.
But the plans were approved by Scarborough Council in March last year after they were revamped.
Steve Hollingworth, head of tourism at Scarborough Council said the beach management centre will be ready for Good Friday (6 April) and Whitby’s Blue Flag award would be unaffected by the progress of the project.
He added they are pushing contractors Sinclair to complete the work on time and said in the event the beach management centre is not completed, the council will provide alternative toilet facilities.
Emma Brennan of Blue Flag said a beach has to have public toilets to recieve the award and the toilets would have to be in place for the start of the bathing season at the end of May.
She said they will be monitorng the situation at Whitby and if a permanent block of toilets is not ready for the start of the season, the council will have to provide temporary facilities if the beach management centre is not open in time.
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Weather for Whitby
Thursday 24 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 18 C
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