Why Did PONTINS Prestatyn Close? What's Next For Pontins?

[Music] on November the 30th 2023 pontins pisatin closed its doors for good it was incredibly sudden some staff found out their jobs had gone via social media and it was a huge shock to both the workforce and locals alike we were lucky enough to visit the site in July 2023 for a holiday on the buses filming locations tour we had a great day although it was sad to see how rundown much of the park was so what's next for ponon pisatin what will become of this beautiful seafront location if you don't know us I'm Rachel he's wills and we are postcard in a pint join us today as we ask what has happened to pontins at the end of November campas sand and prostatin where we are today their pontins closed just a few weeks ago Southport pontins closed what has happened to pontins there are a few rumors flying around about the site's future but really we're here today basically to be nosy there's been loads of speculation all over the local social medias and in the newspaper about what's going to happen to this site but neither britania or the local Council are saying anything Britannia is the hotel group who took over pontins in 2011 they have made little to no investment in the Parks over their time of ownership and consequently many pontins including this one have gained a terrible reputation a lot of people are hoping that a firm like Butlins or Haven by the site and transform it back into an amazing holiday park I think they'd have to raise it to the ground and start again because is in such disrepair but that would be really great to see but nobody thinks that's going to happen the park has only been closed for a month and a half and this is the state of it already in December a link appeared online which claimed that the land had been sold and the whole thing was going to be raised to the ground and it was going to be used for housing now that is reputed to be false by all accounts and it would be such a shame because it sits literally a stone throw from this absolutely beautiful beach it needs to be a holiday park but it's a bit windy today but when we were here in the summer and the tide was out this beach was vast it's the perfect place for a bucket and Spade holiday even if you can't guarantee the weather even today when the weather is a bit gray and cold it's still beautiful and the perfect place for a Winter's walk this dog was having the best day ever this beach is crying out for Holiday makers it would be such a shame if the local economy lost their holiday park there is though another rumor doing the rounds as we said before bratan took over pontins in 2011 now Britannia also took over loads of hotels in the UK and have subsequently run loads of them into the ground but they are apparently making a lot of money at the moment by housing migrants in in these hotels is that what is next with pontins again rumors are Rife online a lot of local people think that's what's going to happen but branna and the council are saying nothing ponon Breen Sands has also closed but apparently only for 3 years it is currently housing the workforce for the new nuclear power plant Hinkley Point C the company has upgraded the park and will leave it in a better condition than they found it if only this could happen here when we did the film locations talk we got a real sense of what it would have been like to have a holiday here back in the 1970s and 1980s it was a real family holiday place where kids would get swept up in the entertainment could run wild on the beach make friends it was a place where dreams came true Fred pontin opened his first holiday Camp just after the second world war it was at Breen Sands in Somerset and offered half board and self-catering holidays featuring entertainment the tagline being all the best people come to pontins within a year he had six camps it was a summer holiday that all generations of the family could enjoy holiday on the buses really does capture the essence of this albeit in a carry-on Type of Way during our visit we found loads to be positive about it's got a pretty good looking arcade always a winner with me and did you know that pontin saw the start of a fair few careers many of today's popular entertainers cut their cloth as blue coat here in ponon not this particular one the ponon in en these include Stu Francis who else Lee Mack Bobby davo uh Bradley Walsh it was a good time sadly though the negatives on the park did outweigh the positives and there was a real sense of desolation and abandonment about the whole site to be honest the outside didn't look a great deal different than it did when we did our tour and the park had been open then with holiday makers on site it's all just a bit desperate and sad we decided to investigate a little further and made our way to the front gates to see if we could find out anything there we just went down to the main gate cuz we wanted to have a look at the Holiday on the bus's side but that's been taken down and put away for safekeeping which is really really good now we were talking to Two Fellas who are employees of ponon blesson or branna who are working out their notice and we asked them what was going on and to be fair they don't know either or they've got a very good Poker Face they pretty much hinted at all the things we've hinted at but one guy was telling us he found out his job had gone off Facebook the other guy who's not even on Facebook found out he said a couple of days later he literally didn't know his job had gone it's absolutely disgusting how they've been treated so their job now is to watch security cameras and keep what is left safe because another thing they told us was after it was announced it was closed they had Urban explorers in and they actually managed to get into the main entertainment Hub took loads of video photographs all over the Internet it went then after that they had people breaking in because they thought it was you know abandoned and it was easy pickings for supplies mattresses Furniture fridges microwaves so these poor people from Britannia now their job is to sit and watch security cameras and make sure no one gets over the fence thanks so much guys for chatting to us and we have everything cross that someone buys this park and your jobs will exist once again so with all these closures what's next for pontins there are only two pontins left now in the UK and these are both adults only pontins which is so far away from the vision that Fred ponon had when he started these family holiday parks and as you saw from the um sign for praed a holiday for kids will it become a holiday park Under New Management will it be flat pattened to be developed as housing or will it become migrant accommodation so who knows what's going to happen to pontins there is supposed to be an announcement by brania before the end of January so that gives them 2 weeks left now it's absolutely freezing let's get out of the cold and let's go up a pint non-alcoholic of course of course we are still on dry January and it's going really doing all right AR we and i' I've actually found a a non-alcoholic logger the tastes of logger so free Dam of Barcelona if you'd like to sponsor know where we are yeah Everything feels like it's falling into place this year it's going well so far 2024 but pontins what did you think it was sad to see wasn't it it was really I mean it didn't look a lot different to be honest when we went inside it but it is really really sad but a piece of good news is that Lions holiday Parks who own a ton everything around here and loads of parks around it held their recruitment day this week and at least 40 people from p ons prostatin got work there so that is good news but you no word from brania yet what's going to happen to it who knows but as soon as we do know we will let you know right what we're doing next what we doing we'd like to say thank you Mass thank you we've got some more patreons we have indeed who to thunk I know you can go first okay I would like to say a massive massive thank you to Pete and shell from ob's Outdoors cheers guys you're amazing and I would like to say a big huge thank you to Cara from John and Cara retired Travelers oh yeah yeah yeah they're great we thank you so much we love you loads we do indeed and Kate and rosan whove supported us for so long they're fantastic massive thank you and to Tasha Tasha thank you so wonderful Tasha the only reason we're not mentioning your we your YouTube channel cuz you said not to but he might see you at wolver Hampton oh yes I hope to go wolver Hampton to the choir boys gig and we'd like to say another big thank you another one to UT yes yeah because she's now a large she's got a large one she made hers a large one she has indeed she really has she has indeed yeah and we've got lots of plans coming up and plans have changed already but we're not going to tell you we're not going to tell you but if you over to patreon youd find out all the plans you find out going to make a video in a minute for patreon but before we go before we go we'd just like to do a shout out to the cooks explore we we met up with them there's a lovely Channel called Cooks explore check them out check them out we'll link them below they do well they do lots of things but they do a lot of cruise ship stuff and that's how we discovered them and they happen to be visiting Chester doing a video in Chester doing the walk in the walls video and they contacted us said supp you fancy meetting up for a pine and we said hell yeah alcoholic of course bless them though I didn't realize till near the end of the night they weren't drinking alcoholic logger because we weren't and when I discovered oh fill your boots have a drink don't mind us so did so they did but it was lovely to meet it was really lovely to meet you and we did a little cheers to the good time we did so we're going to cut to that we're not going to do it now so if you'd like this video oh if you'd hit the Subscribe button if you like the video if you'd subscribe there's the patreon thing if you fancy doing that just for the price of a beer and right now we're going to head over to Chester and look who we've met it's Cox explore as we say in post but of M cheers yay I hate static Caravans why cuz every time I put me key in the lock me hair sticks up what hair o