- Southport park, Merseyside, shuts its doors after Storm Henk causes flooding
- Follows recent closures of Prestatyn, North Wales, and Camber Sands, in Sussex
Pontins has been a much-loved British family holiday staple for nearly 80 years, but its future looks bleak after the closure of its third holiday park in a matter of weeks means fewer than a handful of sites remain.
Staff at the Southport park site in Merseyside claim they found out by text they had lost their jobs just hours before the shock announcement was made.
Pontins blamed recent flooding caused by Storm Henk saying ‘after assessing the future viability of the park, we have come to the difficult decision to close our doors’.
It comes after the parks in Prestatyn, North Wales and Camber Sands, in Sussex, were immediately shut down at the end of November without warning, with the latest closure raising serious questions about the future of the once much-loved family getaway.
Pontins was bought out of administration by Britannia Hotels for £20million in 2011 with much promise from hotel tycoon Alex Langsam, dubbed the ‘Asylum King’, to reinvent the troubled parks into Disney-style seaside destinations.
The multi-millionaire has amassed an estimated £248m fortune through Britannia Hotels, which enjoys lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts to house asylum seekers across its 60 sites.
Britannia, named worst hotel chain for eleven consecutive years, has failed to stem the decline of Pontins in the last 12 years, amid the Home Office recently denying rumours the closed down parks would be used to house migrants.
Families were evacuated from the Southport site by firefighters on New Year’s Day when heavy rainfall caused the old boating lake to burst its banks and flood the park, reported the Liverpool Echo.
In less than 48 hours on Wednesday afternoon, Pontins announced on its Facebook page the park would be closing its doors for good, with The Mirror reporting furious staff were told by text message.
‘It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of Pontins Southport Holiday Park,’ they said in a statement.
‘After assessing the future viability of the park, we have come to the difficult decision to close our doors. Unfortunately, this means that Pontins Southport Holiday Park will be closing from Wednesday 3rd January 2024.
‘Customers whose bookings will be affected by these closures will be contacted by our team and refunded.
‘We apologise for any inconvenience caused.’
Southport’s Conservative MP Damien Moore told the BBC the closure could provide an economic boost to the area with the right investment.
‘Whilst the closure of Pontins is clearly concerning for the staff who I’m sure will be shocked, it provides a fantastic opportunity for a high-quality holiday accommodation provider to take over the site,’ he said.
‘Given its excellent location next to Ainsdale beach, with suitable investment, it could offer a substantial economic boost to Ainsdale and the wider Southport area.’
In its heyday there were 30 Pontins scattered across the country, but with recent closures mean there are only three left standing: Pakefield, in Suffolk; Sand Bay, in Weston-super-Mare; and Brean Sands, in Somerset.
Although Pontins announced last January the Brean Sands park would shut for three years so EDF coul house 900 workers while work is carried out on a new nuclear power plant.
The Home Office was forced to deny the Prestatyn and Camber Sands sites would be used to house 1,600 migrants after rumours began to swirl online.
The Home Office said in December the rumours were not true – and it do not know where they came from.
The Home Office told MailOnline they are not looking to use the Pontins sites as asylum seeker accommodation – insisting that there are no plans.
A reason behind the closures have yet to been revealed with owners Britannia posting record profits this year.
It posted pre-tax profits of £33.3m for the 12 months to March 31, 2022, after falling to a loss of £9.5m in the prior year, while accounts filed to Companies House shows it achieved a turnover of £117.8m, up from just £38.4 million.
The company, whose multimillionaire boss Andrew Langsam has built up an estimated £248m fortune through Britannia Hotels, enjoys lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts to house asylum seekers across its 60 sites – at least 17 of which are said to have been block-booked.
The octogenarian tycoon launched the company in 1976 with the purchase of the Britannia Country House Hotel in Didsbury, Manchester. He also owns Pontins, which in 2021 tried to ban travellers from its holiday parks.
The entrepreneur has previously boasted of Britannia’s role in safeguarding the future of some of Britain’s most historic hotels, including the Adelphi in Liverpool – which was used by passengers on the Titanic – and the Grand in Scarborough.
But Britannia is now notorious for its Basil Fawlty style service, with its entry in the Which? ranking of the best and worst hotels in the country stating: ‘Run-down, dirty and once again the worst hotel chain in the UK. Avoid at all costs.’
Fred Pontin first launched Pontins in 1946 offering half-board and self-catering holidays with entertainment at resorts around the country before its £56million sale to Coral in 1978.
It went through a number of new owners before it was saved in 2011 by Britannia when it fell into administration.
Shane Ritchie, Bobby Davro, Bradley Walsh, and Lee Mack are listed among its former famous bluecoats.
MailOnline has contacted Britannia Hotels for further comment.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
