While few people are less than impressed with the appearance of the gardens since their £30,000 makeover, concerns have been raised about health and safety issues and the potential of the site to attract vandals.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of the cash has come from external sources, many people have also criticised owners Hunmanby Parish Council and the Bayley Gardens Management Committee for the way they have spent it.

Stan Dickinson, of High Croft, is one of a small number of villagers who have been prepared to put their name to any form of criticism when speaking to The Mercury.

Mr Dickinson, who started using a mobility scooter for the first time last year, described the gardens as "not safe for the disabled", highlighting concerns with the ramp, hard edges, drops and the lack of railings next to the ramp.

He said: "Someone whose wife is disabled told me to come and have a look. There's a ramp which has no safety rail and a gap down one side a wheel could get stuck in.

"The middle of the gardens are fine and the railings all round are very nice, but the raised semi-circle for bands and so on has the sharpest edge imaginable and if someone fell they would hurt themselves very badly."

Mr Dickinson said he was also concerned to see the glass panel on the new noticeboard appeared to have been struck with an airgun pellet – and predicted there would be more problems to come.

Others have asked why the money couldn't have been spent on re-opening the toilet block next to the gardens.

But chairman of the management committee and the parish council, Cllr Joyce Coggins, launched a robust defence of the gardens, adding that nothing would ever be improved in the village if vandals were allowed to call the shots.

"If we felt like that, we wouldn't do anything," she said. "We try to keep the village looking good for visitors.

"Of the money we've spent, at least £22,000 has come from external funding and it's cost the parish council very little. It's about £4,000 and that money was originally earmarked for the toilets – a completely different issue which we dealt with separately. Yes, we'd have loved to have done the toilets, but maintenance was the issue."

Cllr Coggins said the gardens were not absolutely finished and there was still much planting to be done.

She added: "We've taken on board the criticisms. We've not just ignored it. It's like any shops or premises with a step, you have to take into account disabled people and you have to take 'reasonable care'.

"There's a point where the ramp reaches the top and there's a little gap which we might have to do something about, we've just not agreed what we're going to do yet."

She said the plans were approved by Scarborough and District Disablement Action Group before work was begun, and countered suggestions that the ramp was not wide enough for wheelchair users.


Cllr Coggins said she though the site was more dangerous before it was revamped and it would have been necessary to spend a significant amount of money on making it safe whether or not the gardens were developed.

Responding to concerns about the hard surface and the cost of the materials, she said it was never intended to be a children's playground and replica stones and materials were a Conservation Area requirement.