Scarborough West Pier regeneration plan 'will badly impact' everyone
A business owner on the seafront has been speaking outScarborough West Pier
A business owner on Scarborough's seafront says the regeneration of the West Pier will have a bad impact on everyone.
Earlier this week, the Borough Council's cabinet voted in favour of a £3.9 million increase which is being strongly objected.
Campaigners say the authority did not hold consultations on the proposals and the money should be spent in the town centre instead.
Peter Lee is from the 'Save Our West Pier' group, which represents the entire community on Scarborough seafront.
He said: "None of us wants this to go ahead. The whole of the seafront community; the shops, the restaurants, the fishermen on the pier are against this project. 90 percent of us haven't been consulted at all. It's totally illegal what the council are doing with the Town Deal fund money. This should be spent in the town centre.
"The money should be spent on that town square project. It would join the seafront beautifully with the town centre, it would create wonderful footfall for the town centre, which is where the Town Deal fund money should be spent, and it would bring much needed additional business to the recently refurbished Market Hall.
"The West Pier is in a terribly state physically. The Town Deal fund money isn't made for the fishing community. It's not made for restoration of piers. It's there specifically for restoring the town centre.
"The impact for all the businesses on the seafront would be quite horrendous and for those residents living on the bottom end. We have a horrendous problem with parking all the time and have done for many years. To take away 200 car parking spaces on the pier, where are people going to park?
"There's now talk as well that as part of the scheme the Eastborough car park will also disappear, which will make things even worse. The residents that live here have nowhere to park properly and in the summer, it becomes a nightmare."