‘We look forward to commencing work on that project as soon as possible, which will see us add indoor and outdoor sport and leisure facilities’
An artist’s impression of the new leisure area at Skirlington Coast(Image: Unity Holidays)
Plans for East Yorkshire holiday park owners to make its most significant investment ever into a seaside site have been given the green light. Unity Holidays has been driving forward plans to make modern changes to Skirlington Coast Yorkshire, having snapped up the park in 2024.
After making a number of improvements to the park – which is set between Hornsea and Bridlington – including new additions to its dining and leisure facilities, the firm’s parent company Legacy Leisure Group unveiled a grand plan to create a new entertainment area. The exciting plans include a new food and drinks pavilion; a promenade feature walkway and a new lido including an outdoor pool.
Bosses at the business told us how the plans will create than 120 jobs as well as seasonal roles, with its £20m transformation revealing funfair attractions, new pools, cabanas and pop-up entertainment. A splash pad with a tots pool, a new car park, garden seating, sunbathing areas, and a new terrace area with a feature piazza area also form part of the changes.
A total of 92 new caravans are also planned in part two of the firm’s planning application. Now planners at East Riding of Yorkshire Council have voted to approve plans, giving the green light to a change of use, conversion and alteration of the existing market building and surrounding area, at a council meeting.
The scheme will, however, bring to an end 40 years of trading at Skirlington Market on the site of the holiday park’s car park. The plans had garnered objections from traders and market directors with the weekly market, with more than 12,000 people signing a petition calling for the plans to be rejected.
However, council officers recognised that there were no valid planning reasons to refuse the proposals, with the dispute between the market officials and landowners Legacy Leisure falling outside of the committee’s remit. As a result, the scheme to transform the site can go ahead. However, the part of the application for the creation of 92 new caravans on the land has been deferred.
A spokesman for Unity Holidays said: “We thank the council’s planning committee for approving our application to redevelop the land on our park currently occupied by Skirlington Market, as well as the buildings on that land used by the market.
“We look forward to commencing work on that project as soon as possible, which will see us add indoor and outdoor sport and leisure facilities as well as re landscaping the entire area. Our application to compensate for the loss of caravans to coastal erosion – in line with the council’s planning policy – was deferred.
“We look forward to discussing with the council and clarifying their grounds for deferral, and to the planning committee supporting that proposal as well in due course.”
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