Wales: A Pontins holiday campsite in Prestatyn which closed last year is being touted for a sale to holiday camp chain Butlin’s.
Having originally opened in 1971, Prestatyn Sands Holiday Park was closed with immediate effect in November last year, at the same time as the closure of another Pontins park in Camber Sands, East Sussex. Record label Tidy Trax had been planning to hold a “wet and wild weekender” at the park in Prestatyn before it learned of the site’s closure.
No public explanation was ever provided for the closure of the parks by either Pontins or park owner Britannia Hotels, although staff at the Prestatyn site were reportedly told that the park shut due to loss-making projections for 2024.
When approached by the Rhyl Journal, a Butlin’s spokesperson said that the company was making its “biggest ever investment across our three resorts”.
Meanwhile in January, the British holiday park company shut its site close to Southport in Merseyside – its third park closure in just over a month.
Founded in 1946 by Fred Pontin, Pontins was brought out of administration in 2011 by Britannia Hotels, which acquired the chain for £20million and saved 850 jobs. At the height of its success, Pontins owned 30 seaside resort destinations across the UK but it now owns only three sites: Pakefield Holiday Village in Suffolk; Sand Bay Holiday Village in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset; and Brean Sands in Burnham on Sea, Somerset, which is closed to guests until November 2025 to accommodate workers constructing the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
Meanwhile, it has just been announced that the Pakefield Holiday Village in Lowestoft will accommodate “around 500” workers constructing the nearby Sizewell C nuclear power station, which is being partly funded by French energy firm EDF. The station is set to be built on land between Aldeburgh and Southwold, and cost around £20 billion according to estimates.
In 2022, Pontins was the lowest ranked British holiday park chain out of 19 businesses in a report published by consumer group Which?.
Reports previously suggested that the Home Office was considering housing asylum seekers in a Pontins holiday park in North West England, and that the Southport park might be used to accommodate them while they had their claims assessed, as a cheaper alternative to using local hotels. The Home Office refuted the rumours and clarified that the closed parks would not be used to accommodate asylum seekers, amid media speculation on the matter.
