“Center Parcs-on-sea” holiday park due to open in Cleethorpes
UK: A new £57 million holiday park, dubbed as “Center Paris-on-sea”, is due to open in 2022 in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, providing another destination for staycationers and domestic travellers to visit should a planning application be approved.
Under plans drawn up by developers, the park would hold 250 eco lodges, a 148-room hotel, a lake for water sports enthusiasts, two leisure units, a petrol station, its own supermarket and 25 food and drink outlets. Visitors would be able to participate in water-based activities including canoeing, kayaking and paddle boarding, and the site will also be large enough to hold larger-scale events and festivals.
Each eco lodge will have open-plan space, a loft suite and its own private terrace.
Developers Adrian Smith and Ming Yeung, of Grimsby-based development group YPG Fab 2, submitted the first application for the concept on the former site of the Pleasure Island fairground in Cleethorpes in August. The pair hope to open their first lodges at the park by Spring 2022.
Speaking to local newspaper Grimsby Live, they said that their shared vision could “attract thousands of visitors and bring hundreds of jobs”, as well as bring in an estimated £13.2 million in new visitor expenditure per annum.
Having developed a long-time reputation as a popular seaside resort, the town of Cleethorpes will hope that the proposed new development will revitalise the fortunes of the local area, which was moved into Tier Two of Covid-19 restrictions in England at the end of October, just before the national lockdown came into effect. Northern Lincolnshire was also set to receive an additional £1 million in government support at the time.
Smith and Yeung told Grimsby Live that the opportunity to redevelop land that has been abandoned for four years since Pleasure Island’s closure was one that they “could not miss”. According to figures from Social Investment Business, consumer spending in Cleethorpes dropped by 72 per cent in the first national lockdown from March, while some businesses posted losses of up to 95 per cent in that time.
Meanwhile, in July, hotel chain Travelodge predicted that the summer’s surge in bookings for staycations would equate to a £24 billion boost for the UK economy.
A planning application for the holiday park site is currently under consideration by local authorities.
