Tesco transformation for holiday park

Lyme Bay Leisure Resort in Seaton, East Devon, closes its doors today despite strong opposition from local residents. The site is to be handed over to new owner Tesco.

The company plans to build a new superstore and has also outlined plans for more than 200 new homes and leisure facilities, including a new hotel, But it has already warned these could be delayed because of the economic climate.

Malcolm Bell, head of South West Tourism, said: "We're nervous, really. A couple of years ago, it would have been sad to see something go down but confident that something else would grow.

"Although the park is shutting, is something going to go in its place? These are very uncertain times to be operating. When you do lose stock, you want to make sure there's something coming in line."

Mr Bell added the investment climate was now "remarkably different" to even 12 months ago.

Although he recognised things had to "move on", and he was hopeful regeneration would happen in Seaton, he said he would have liked to see signs of other investment before the leisure complex closed down.

He added: "What we'd like to see is town centre development to give investment confidence for hotels and so on.

"A year ago, that would have been exactly what would have happened – now people will hang back."

However, Mr Bell was fairly optimistic about the holiday park industry as a whole.

He said: "The holiday park sector is hopefully one of the more robust ones as we move into a recession, because people are looking for value and people trade into their territory.

"Obviously, unemployment is rising but hospitality is holding up a lot better than others."

Sandra Semple, chairman of Seaton Town Council, said yesterday Tesco had not yet sought planning permission for the regeneration site. And she said the closure of Lyme Bay Holiday Resort left the town in a "position of crisis".

She added: "It's a great tragedy that it has to close with the loss of all the jobs and facilities that people use, especially because 2009 will be the year of value holidays in the UK."

Although she said there were "a lot of ideas" about what might take the park's place, there was nothing yet planned.

The complex had routinely brought 400 to 500 "bed tourists" to the town every night, according to Mrs Semple.

"It was always popular, it was always busy," she said.

Although planning permission had been granted for a new eco-friendly holiday spa at the derelict Seaton Heights hotel, Mrs Semple said work on this had not yet begun and it would only go so far to replace the Lyme Bay park.

She added other regeneration plans depended on the economic situation improving.