NEW PROMENADE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20907, 14 July 1933, Page 10

NEW PROMENADE.

IMPROVEMENTS AT SCARBOROUGH. PROBABLE SITE FOR NEW LIFEBOAT SHED. Work has now been started by the Sumner Borough Council on an ambitious scheme which should greatly improve the facilities at Scarborough Head for picnickers and for Ashing off the rocks, and which will give access to a small sheltered bay, portion of which will probably be used for the erection of a new shed for the Sumner lifeboat.

The scheme includes the cutting away of the extreme point of the Scarborough Head, the rock from which will be used to form a short breakwater which, with the present natural break formed by a low toe of rock visible at low water, is expected to attord a good deal of shelter in the bay between the head and the old breakwater. It is not intended that the scheme should embrace the provision of a small harbour to be used by light craft, including fishing boats, as has been suggested from time to time, although the completed work could possibly form the basis for a more extensive and costly boat-harbour scheme in the future. The Promenade. The main intention of the council in carrying out the work will be to form, in the first place, a fine promenade, about 300 yards in length, extending right along the foreshore from the present breakwater used to shelter the old boat-harbour to the high point which abuts into the sea from the top of Scarborough Head. This new promenade, with the high cliffs on one side and the sea immediately below, will run into a sheltered little bay, which has for years been a favoured spot for fishing, and for the more intrepid picnickers. Access to the bay has hitherto been difficult, necessitating climbing down a steep cliff from Scarborough Park, and the fear of someone meeting with a serious accident while negotiating the dangerous path down the cliff was one of the main reasons for the council's decision to give better access by a road. Portion of the track which will ultimately become a promenade was already formed, and gave access to portion of the cliffs, much favoured because of the warm and sheltered site, and upon which rock plants and flowering shrubs are how growing in profusion. The spot is one of the prettiest in the borough.

New Shed Proposed. Although the promenade will be a big acquisition lor the public, it is highly probable that it will be of even greater service, in giving access to a new site for the Sumner Lifeboat Institution's lifeboat. Since the acquisition of the new lifeboat the institution has had the greatest difficulty in launching the boat in low water, for the slip from the present shed to the sea has become badly silted up, and at the lowest tide it has been impossible to take the boat out. This has caused serious concern, and it was suggested that the completion of the new promenade would give access to a more suitable site. A definite proposal has now been put before the institution, and it was stated yesterday by the Mayor of Sumner (Mr W. H. Nicholson), with whom a reporter of "The Press" visited the site, that it was probable that if sufficient money was available a new shed would be built. The proposed new site, on the Sumner side of the small bav, would enable the lifeboat to be launched with speed at any state of the tide. The foreshore slopes sharply to the sea, and only a short slip would be reauired from the shed into deep water, with a good deal of shelter in certain weather. Mr Nicholson pointed out that a narrow and hieh ridge of rock on the south-west side of the bay would provide an ideal wall for the lifeboat shed, and good shelter from the south-west weather. The shed would have to be a substantial structure, he said, to withstand any unusually high tides.

Temporary Improvements. In the meantime temporary improvements to the boat harbour in which the lifeboat is launched will be made. Two high piles and a small ledge of rock, which were used in the construction of a swimming pool at Scarborough many years ago, will be removed to give better access, and to allow a certain amount of scouring by the sea of the badly silted slipway from the lifeboat shed. The piles stand high out of the sea at low tide almost in front of the slipway and add to the difficulty of launching the boat. The slipway used by the lifeboat is also used by several small fishing craft, which trawl on the Banks Peninsula fishing grounds when the weather allows, and the same difficulty is experienced in launching them. It is not expected that the shelter which the council's -improvement scheme will provide nearer the head should be intended in any way for the use of a fishing fleet. Suggestions had been made, said Mr Nicholson, that temporary shelter jcould be provided for boats unable to negotiate the bar on their way back from the fishing grounds; but it was thought that considerable capita] outlay would be required for such a scheme, and the council had not contemplated it.

A Relief Work. The new promenade will be constructed by relief workers, 14 of whom are now on the job, and it is expected that it will be ready for use next summer. The workmen are quarrying rock from the cliff which faces the road to the boatshed, and the sj-oil is being transported on a horse sledge and dumped on the site. The task is by no means easy, for the shore slopes at a sharp angle down to the sea. The road, which will not be negotiable for motor traffic, will be pushed on to Scarborough Head. The biggest job involved in its construction will be the blasting away of the extreme point of the head, for the rock to form the northern breakwater. The cliff at this point is about 50 feet high, and abuts on to Scarboroug Park, so that there will be no question of encroaching on private land. When the work is finished the new promenade should provide another very fine acquisition to an already popular resort.