A Brief History
In mid-2003 a group of people were brought together by Peter Wilkinson and a facilitator from Scarborough Borough Council to talk about issues faced by the business parks at Eastfield. From this meeting, the Scarborough Business Parks Association (SBPA) was formed. On 6th October 2008, the organisation was incorporated as Scarborough Business Association Ltd (SBA) with the aim to run business support and networking events and act as a lobbying organisation for Scarborough Businesses. Since 2005 and in parallel, the Scarborough Renaissance process gained momentum and through this, the Ambassador programme was started by Peter Wilkinson and Nick Taylor. The purpose of this was to hold a series of sponsored dinners to bring together business leaders from across the borough and to encourage them to act as ambassadors for Scarborough and to ask that they work together more collaboratively. The result of this process was a more connected business community where businesses were able to share ideas, open boardrooms and work with each other, boosting the local economy. During the renaissance years, the Scarborough Business Association also became a special interest group under the renaissance executive, helping to link the business community into the process. On 7th January 2013, the ‘ambassadors’ was integrated with the Scarborough Business Association to form the Scarborough Business Ambassadors Ltd, such that the strengths of both organisations could be brought together to further the economic success of the town and the surrounding area.
