Last year when Watchdog visited Pontins Camber Sands resort we were greeted with filthy chalets, broken furniture, rubble under the carpets, dirty beds and even a tamazepam tablet left by a previous guest.
Shortly afterwards Pontins was sold to the Britannia Hotel Group which promised a £25 million investment and Disney-style 'razzmatazz' at all five Pontins resorts. So a year on - is it Magic Kingdom or Little Park of Horrors?
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Pontins has been a household name for more than sixty years and it holds a special place in our childhood memories. There's the fun, the rides, the famous bluecoats and of course their infamous haircuts. Pontins may well be a Great British holiday institution but the new owners said it was ripe for an All-American makeover complete with the sort of costume-characters who keep the crowds at Disneyworld entertained.
However, many Watchdog viewers who've had a holiday at Pontins this year have been in touch to say that they haven't seen any evidence of this Disney style makeover. In fact so many of them have been in touch that we've had to come up with a new filing system - just to cope with the photos. There's Filthy, there's Mouldy, Greasy and Grimy, not forgetting Dusty and Shabby and finally Stinky. Viewers told us about all sorts of things from blood, urine and faeces stains on the bedding, to mould in the bathrooms and on the walls, to grimy carpets, shabby furniture and horrible smells.
These complaints come eleven months after Pontins former owners saw the company put into administration and a whole nine months after it was brought by the Britannia Hotel Group. The new owners described Pontins as a national treasure but its pledge to invest millions into restoring the camps to their former glory doesn't seem to have materialised.
We've had complaints about all five Pontins resorts: Prestatyn Sands, Southport, Pakefield and Camber Sands. But the resort which we received the most complaints about was Brean Sands in Somerset which one viewer described as 'hell on earth'. Therefore, due to the sheer number of complaints Watchdog booked two apartments at Brean Sands and sneaked Chris Hollins and seven of his best little helpers into the park to investigate. Chris and the gang encountered many of the problems that our viewers had to endure including bad smells, dirty bathrooms, grimy carpets, holes in the walls, stains on the bedding and blood on the curtains. Outside of the apartments they found run-down public toilets, grimy floors, dirty chairs, disused chairs around the park and litter by the crazy golf. However, the swimming pool did look like it had seen a lick of paint - but it couldn't really be described as Disney Magic though.
So we thought we'd bring our own touch of Disney razzmatazz to the park and send our seven dwarves Filthy, Dusty, Grimy, Shabby, Greasy, Mouldy and Stinky to clean things up. The clean up was well underway until security stopped us and pointed Chris and the gang towards the exit which was bad news for Pontins' guests - who's going to clean up for them now?
Company Response:
We asked the company to provide a written statement but they declined.