Theme park set to shut its doors

A THEME park near Cleethorpes is set to close its doors as visitor numbers continued to fall.

The Pleasure Island Theme Park will close at the end of the 2016 season, a notice on its website said.

The park has been open since 1993 and was a subsidiary of Flamingo Land when it was acquired by Robert Gibb, Flamingo Land’s managing director.

Mr Gibb’s sister Melanie Wood (née Gibb)  took over the running of the amusement park, and in 2010 took over the running of the park with the incorporation of DewarSavile Enterprises Ltd.

It was briefly closed, but opened again in the same year with all 200 staff reemployed.

It is unknown how many staff this latest closure will affect.

Owner Melanie Wood said: “It is with deep sadness that I am informing you I have made the very difficult decision to close Pleasure Island Theme Park at the end of this season.

“For the past seven seasons we, as a team, have tried very hard indeed to keep the business going but unfortunately there have been too many hurdles.

“Despite heavy investment over the years the visitor numbers continue to fall and the good August weather this year sadly was not enough to sustain the business.

“In truth it has been a massive struggle from day one but I lived in the hope that with the support of such a loyal and dedicated team and some good weather we would get through. The team never let me down but over the years the weather, amongst other things, certainly has.”