New hope for cliff lift as council backs cost study

Councillors have voted to reexamine the cost of restoring Whitby's historic cliff lift, instead of decommissioning it.

A new investigation was backed by North Yorkshire Council's (NYC) executive members, despite a recommendation to "effectively mothball" the 1931 structure.

The lift has been out of service since April 2022 due to "significant corrosion" caused by water inside the lift shaft.

Conservative councillor for Danby & Mulgrave David Chance told the committee an estimate of £5.5m for repair costs was based on "what I believe is seriously flawed and out-of-date information".

He said that while the lift was closed, accessing West Cliff Beach, which has blue-flag accessibility status, was more challenging due to the steep paths.

"I personally can no longer get down there, let alone get back up, with my shot knees and COPD asthma."

Whitby Town Mayor Sandra Taylor said someone had recently been rescued by the Coastguard and ambulance service after getting into difficulty using the "zig-zag" paths on a mobility scooter.

Taylor said the cliff lift was one of the reasons people visited Whitby.

She raised concern that there would be "nothing special" about the town "if we keep removing those assets".

"Whitby does draw a significant amount of the tourism income into this county."

Councillors also voted to end a free bus service, put in place to transport people from the top of the cliff to the bottom, following low take-up of the service.

But they pledged to work with the town council to explore potential alternatives.

Chance, who previously worked at the lift, said separate investigations carried out by mining company AngloAmerican had highlighted "serious questions" about the report upon which recommendations were made by council officers.

Surveys carried out during summer 2025 and the following winter found similar amounts of water in the shaft, indicating that condensation was the primary issue, according to Phil Trumper, Conservative councillor for Whitby West.

"The amount of rain we've had over this winter, you would expect if it was proper water ingress, that the shaft would be flooded," Trumper said.

He and Chance are both members of the Scarborough and Whitby Area Committee, which has called for the cliff lift to be preserved.

The committee chair, Labour councillor Liz Colling, said she had to portray the "strength of feeling" from local residents.

"The fundamental issue is the lack of confidence in the decision-making process of the executive because there is not a full costing.

"What we have is a guesstimate."

Karl Battersby, NYC's director of corporate services, said the cliff lift was "an issue that we've inherited".

"We're sat facing £30m-plus of infrastructure costs on the coast," he said.

"We can't afford to do everything."

Despite questions over the exact cost of restoring the cliff lift, he said it would be "significant", hence the recommendation to "decommission the lift but not stop something happening in the future, so effectively mothballing the lift".

About 6,000 people in Whitby, which has a population of approximately 13,000, signed a petition against the lift's closure.

Following the council executive vote, campaigner Peter Graham, who is part of the Whitby Community Network group, said he "didn't expect them to say that".

He had obtained lift inspection reports from 2016 and 2021 by submitting Freedom of Information requests, which formed part of the area committee's case.

Graham, 69, a retired builders' merchant manager, was disappointed by the decision to end the bus route, saying the service had not been well-enough advertised.

"We do need to keep a close eye on North Yorkshire Council," he added.

He encouraged local councillors and the town council to keep residents updated, and called for alternative funding to be obtained through grants or the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.

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