Scarborough Council and Yorkshire Coast Sight Support charity set to work together on community housing project

A grant of £80,000 is being considered by Scarborough Council to help purchase and adapt a property that wold be available for visually impaired people in the borough to rent.

If approved, the Yorkshire Coast Sight Support charity would receive up to £80,000 of match funding, with the charity also providing £80,000 to finance the initiative.

The charity, which has existed for more than 80 years, has been concerned for some time that there is no specially designed housing provision in the borough for visually impaired and deaf persons.

The Royal National Institute for the Blind has estimated that with an ageing population, the number of visually impaired people in the borough could rise to 5,900 by 2030, and the council has said that “there is a need for specialist community groups to demonstrate the ability of visually impaired and deaf residents to remain independent”.

Scarborough Council’s Cabinet will meet on Tuesday October 18 to decide on the approval of the funding, which would bring back an “empty derelict property into use as affordable housing for the local community”.

Yorkshire Coast Sight Support has a charity shop on Falsgrave Road in Scarborough, which also has a two-bedroom flat above it. Originally, the charity had planned on renovating and making that property suitable for a visually impaired person.

However, this year the charity was “unexpectedly bequeathed with a sizeable sum of money” which has allowed it to search for a more suitable, ground floor property, which would not have to be rented unlike the flat above the charity shop.

Subsequently, the charity found a suitable property located in the Falsgrave and Stepney ward, which it is in the process of purchasing.

The two-bedroom ground-floor flat will require some adaptations to make it suitable for a visually impaired person and an offer of £123,500 has been made.

A total budget of £160,000 has been identified for the project, although that is a maximum estimate according to Scarborough Council, and the match funding will be paid out “in respect of the actual costs of the project and not the maximum figure”.

This will be the eighth community-led homes project supported by the council if it is granted approval.