Beloved theme parks are vanishing from Britain’s landscape with increased costs, dwindling visitor numbers, and Labour’s ‘socialist’ Budget bearing the brunt of the blame.
Last night, Wales’ largest theme park became the latest to fall by the wayside as bosses announced its sudden and immediate closure.
Oakwood Theme Park in Pembrokeshire said financial challenges caused by rising costs and dwindling visitor numbers had the decision to shut down rides for good after 40 years of delighting tourists and families.
Owner Aspro Parks took a thinly-veiled dig at Rachel Reeves’ Budget saying the ‘unrelenting economic challenges’ and the national insurance thresholds had affected the decision.
The firm said it had invested more than £25million since the park was saved from closure in 2008.
It wasn’t the first theme park to point to the Chancellor’s tax-grabbing Budget as a cause of concern to the future of some struggling businesses in the industry.
Philip Miller, owner of Adventure Island in Southend-on-Sea, one of Britain’s oldest theme parks, is facing financial pressure thanks to Reeves saying he will lose £600,000 in turnover and employ 200 fewer staff this year.
And Britain’s oldest theme park Wicksteed Park in Kettering last month warned it was under threat of closure with the owner blaming Labour’s ‘socialist’ Budget.
Chairman Oliver Wicksteed said the much-loved park may cease to exist in its current form unless it manages to secure extra funding.
Operating costs such as fuel and insurance have soared in recent years, with Reeves’ recent budget placing further strain on the park’s stretched resources.
Mr Wicksteed, whose great-grandfather opened the park originally, told the Telegraph that Labour’s ‘socialist approach to raising money’ could prove to be the final nail in the park’s coffin.
The budget saw increases to both the minimum wage and National Insurance contributions which will cost the park an additional £50,000 a year.
Describing the budget as a ‘hammer blow’, Mr Wicksteed warned that the park’s finances could not absorb the full brunt of these increased costs and that it would lead to the park’s visitors suffering.
‘The people who are paying for this at the end of the day are the consumer and the general public.
‘That’s just a socialist approach to raising money, making it look like it’s coming from business and not the end user, but the net effect on the end user is essentially the same – it costs more,’ Mr Wicksteed said.
Having previously endured financial struggles having collapsed into administration during the Covid pandemic, the park was forced to lay off 115 staff in the summer of 2020.
Another round of lay-offs will now be required to help keep a lid on costs, the chairman added.
The 281-acre estate boasts over 25 rides along with numerous playgrounds and walking trails, with its pavilion also serving as a hub for community events.
Adventure Island owner Mr Miller, 69, said he is being forced to raise ticket prices by 25 per cent and he ‘can’t afford to die now’ because the ‘tax would finish the business’.
Mr Miller said the problems Adventure Island is facing are being witnessed across the UK’s theme park industry, based on conversations he has had with other owners.
He told that changes revealed in last October’s Budget will be ‘affecting operations in various ways’, adding: ‘Initially we’ve cut opening hours a bit.
‘Last year, under the previous chancellor, we closed on weekdays in June for the first time. That was the effect of the previous Budget, not this one.’
He continued: ‘What it means is we’ll open the rides a bit later, close a bit earlier, save staff that way. We’re going to cut numbers.
‘As people are leaving we’re not replacing them. So far there’s nine gone and we haven’t replaced them and we won’t replace them.’
Mr Miller added that the park will ‘have to raise our prices quite substantially’.
Citing a study in April 2024 by BravoVoucher on the country’s best-value amusement park, he continued: ‘Last year we were the best value theme park in the UK.
‘Now we’re having to stick it up by 25 per cent. We’re not sure how that will affect the customers as they are short of money themselves. Things haven’t really been right since Covid.’
Mr Miller said the park had tried reducing prices last year in an attempt to make money through secondary expenditure by customers – such as on food and drink.
The price of its annual pass has gone up from £50 in 2023 to £60 in 2024 and now £80 this year, with Mr Miller putting the latest increase down to Budget-related cost pressures.
However, last week he temporarily cut the price to £40 for a limited sale period in an attempt to raise income outside the high season.
He added that the park normally has 1,200 people employed in the summer, most of whom are college students on part-time hours who only work during the holidays.
But Mr Miller, whose business is one of Southend’s biggest employers, said: ‘For those, we’re a bit of a lifeline for them – so a lot will be disappointed this year.
‘We’re looking at taking 200 less on and the ones we do have will be doing less hours. It’s the perfect storm.’
The Budget was also ‘stopping capital expenditure’, Mr Miller said, with the park unable to invest in new rides – something it is normally keen to do to encourage previous visitors to return.
He said: ‘We really don’t know how it’s going to finish up. Are we going to hit a recession? It’s a case of survival of the fittest. Come out the other side, we’ll see who’s survived.’
Wet n Wild in North Shields was home to the country’s biggest water slide but closed its doors in 2020 after 27 years much to the shock and dismay of locals.
A £1.1million makeover by then owners Serco Leisure had failed to turn around its fortunes after the firm bought the site in 2014.
It had been in financial difficulties for years and closed permanently during the Covid pandemic.
Demolition work on the site was completed last month with borken pieces of waterslides seen amongst the rubble.
Meanwhile, in Cornwall, Flambards shut its doors in November after 48 years again citing ‘rising costs and a steady decline in visitor numbers’.
The announcement left families gutted with Chris Bates telling the BBC: ‘Flambards was like our haven away from the stresses and strains of life.’
The closure of the much-loved Helston theme park spared Cornish tourist attraction bosses to warn of the national insurance hike putting added pressure on the industry.
Nick Reynolds, director of Paradise Park in Hayle, told the BBC Flambards’ closure was ‘tragic’, adding: ‘The National Insurance increase from the Budget is just going to cripple us and we’re all struggling with the new rate.’
The recent accounts of Suffolk-based Pleasurewood Hills also make for troubling reading with the attraction reporting heavy losses of £340,000 in 2024.
Figures filed to Companies House showed the treble increase in post-tax losses compared to £110,000 the previous year.
The park, owned by The Looping Group, recorded that debts had fallen from £4.2million to £3.8million in the same period.