Leisure giant aiming to add 150 chalets to holiday park

Butlins owner Bourne Leisure is seeking planning permission for 147 timber chalets on a 75-acre site on the opposite side of the road to Far Grange Park at Skipsea, on the B1242, between Hornsea and Bridlington.

The park, which was founded in 1970 by Mike McCann, already has 850 holiday homes.

There has been planning permission for the extension dating back to 2004 and 2006, but Bourne Leisure, which bought the park four years ago in a multi-million pound deal, wants more space between chalets to create a lower density park.

Plans show chalets informally grouped round a lake, with access off Hornsea Road, using a recently upgraded access.

Planners say a lower density development will look better.

Both the council and Natural England think it’s crucial to make it a “biodiversity led” plan, which draws on the existing landscape of trees, ditches and grassland, and have recommended that the developers’ landscaping plans are abandoned.

The plans are being recommended for approval at Thursday’s meeting of East Riding Council’s planning committee in Beverley.

Officials say there will be benefits for neighbouring businesses such as the golf course, and nearby villages like Beeford, Atwick and Brandesburton, as well as Hornsea and Bridlington.

Bourne, which also owns Haven and British Holidays and Warner Breaks, is the biggest provider of domestic holidays in the UK.

The group’s portfolio includes four holiday businesses in the Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire area – Primrose Valley, Blue Dolphin and Reighton Sands which are all near Filey, and Thorpe Park at Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire.

Five-star Far Grange Park includes an all-weather floodlit sports pitch, 18-hole golf course, two fishing lakes and heated indoor swimming pool.

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