Scarborough named UK Enterprise Capital 2008

Scarborough has been named UK Enterprise Capital 2008 for regeneration that included turning a museum full of stuffed seabirds into studio space for creative businesses.

The award is handed out yearly by the government, based on the recommendation of independent judges, to a town or city that has made striking progress in reviving a sickly local economy.

Shriti Vadera, small business minister, commended Scarborough businesspeople and public servants for "establishing a strong enterprise culture, creating jobs and stamping out seasonal unemployment".

In its Victorian heyday, the Yorkshire seaside town was a posh resort, priding itself on attracting gaffers rather than factory hands.

Scarborough's fortunes declined with the advent of mass tourism and the collapse of the fishing industry. By the early 1990s, dereliction was spreading as failed guesthouses converted into benefits hostels.

The fightback began in 1995 through what is becoming a standard formula for reanimating moribund seaside resorts.

Council officers forged a partnership with the small entrepreneurs who constituted the bulk of the town's private sector. They gave historic buildings a make-over, stretched out the tourist season through the creation of new events and encouraged non-tourism businesses to set up....

the conversion of Wood End, a property once owned by the artistic Sitwell family, into a workspace for creative businesses.

Nick Taylor, of Scarborough Renaissance Partnership, said: "It had become a museum full of dead gannets, which was not that interesting to anyone."