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Aspro Parks Group (UK)

SuperMuscleMan

SuperMuscleMan

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Oakwoods current owner owns a collection of other attractions (2) and aquariums (7) inside the UK (it mainly operates on mainland Europe)

I wanted to mention on the oakwood thread that in Hastings where it owned three attractions it's recently sold one of them and apparently has been sold to a development group.

Hastings castle (nothing to do with 1066) is being redeveloped but smugglers adventures and Hastings Aquarium still remain part of the group and word is that smugglers underground adventures is having an update..(something it's not had in 20+ years) I take it this is because of the funds freed up from the sale of the castle.
 
This is very unusual. I don’t think Aspro has ever sold a park/attraction. They close parks, as we saw with Oakwood and Wasalandia, but as far as I’m aware they’ve never sold a park or attraction.

This was why, when people were talking about buying Oakwood, I always felt that those attempt were in vain. And certainly in the case of Oakwood it don’t surprise me one bit that they refused to sell.

If Aspro are now starting to sell, maybe there’s a small chance we could see new owners for the two Walygator parks. Hope so anyway.
 
BSwiss said:
I don’t believe they ever owned the castle. They just had a contract with the ownership (some form of local authority, I think) to operate it as an attraction. That contract expired in Sept last yr, and hasn’t been renewed.
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As far as I'm aware they owned the visitor centre. It still surprises me that they gave it up if they did, it's been under their control since I can remember (30 years). With a trio of attractions it's odd.

The ones taking over are definitely on the back foot as it looks like it will be a while before anything is done. (Although it's a pretty unremarkable castle with Bodiam and battle abbey near by).
 
BSwiss said:
I don’t believe they ever owned the castle. They just had a contract with the ownership (some form of local authority, I think) to operate it as an attraction. That contract expired in Sept last yr, and hasn’t been renewed.
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Yes Wikipedia says owned by the local authority but can’t find other sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_Castle

Also the borough council were looking for refurbishment proposals last year https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c06lrvz1dx3o
 
So, sorry, I’m confused.

1066 is the cave, which Aspro own.

They own the aquarium on Hastings seafront.

That just leaves the castle. What aspect of that attraction are, or were, Aspro involved with?
 
Hastings is in a bit of a pickle tourism wise.
The town is currently the most deprived in the South East. As well as Aspro selling, Sheikh Abid Gulzar is trying to offload Hastings Pier (he is currently in court for 150k worth of fraud).
 
jon81uk said:
Yes Wikipedia says owned by the local authority but can’t find other sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_Castle

Also the borough council were looking for refurbishment proposals last year https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c06lrvz1dx3o
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The website for the new developments can be found at: https://westhillproject.com/

It all seems a bit odd, but according to various news articles, the demolition of the Castle's old info centre was applied for by Aspro (or at least a company that looks like a subsidiary of Aspro) before their contract expired.

Reading between the lines, it looks like Aspro also put in a bid for the refurb project, but looks to have lost out to a local consortium.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
So, sorry, I’m confused.

1066 is the cave, which Aspro own.

They own the aquarium on Hastings seafront.

That just leaves the castle. What aspect of that attraction are, or were, Aspro involved with?
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Smugglers adventures is the cave system.. it's a self guided part automated tour, then goes into an interactive museum. It has a few simple animatronics and effects through the small part of the cave network they own.

Hastings Castle (was linked with 1066 history) is the small castle that is near (ISH) to smugglers (next to the beautiful underground west cliff lift). It told parts of the Battle of Hastings and the castles history. Although the castle was never part of the Normandy invasion but Hastings wasn't either (they landed near Pevancy/Bexhill-On-Sea and headed inland to where Battle now is).

It's been apart of the collection of attractions for as long as I remember but was always the lonely child.

The aquarium was a sea life centre but with Brighton down the road it was always the smaller of the aquariums and went in the big sell off.

All three used to be on a combi ticket and smugglers was closely linked.

@Thameslinkrail you are indeed right Hastings is in a pickle and is very poor in parts.

It swings in elections and was where that famous giant fiberglass rock was unveiled by Milliband with the labour promises.

It's a popular place with alot of day and weekend trippers in summer, the crazy golf area (plus other attractions) does well. The funfair (flamingos) I am unsure about. It needs some love but they do swap rides around alot. There is also a small charity run train that goes through the proposed UNESCO area and seafront.

The biggest tourism flop was OWENS. It's in the middle of controversy with it being the old Debenhams and turned into an indoor amusement/attraction center. The council used all it's grant money on it and the owner (one of the richest women in UK) closed it and ran away owing alot of money.


The other issue in the town is the pier that was rebuilt after a fire which the council and fundraising paid for. It was then sold for £1 to a middle Eastern gentleman and he did lots of controversial things against planning permissions to it and it's now being forced back to public ownership.

Ontop of this Hastings BC is basically broke with huge sums of money paying for social housing because the London boroughs bought up loads of flats and houses 5 - 10 years ago and shipped their problems down to the cheaper houses in Hastings (but are still officially residents of London areas) so Hastings BC have a massive social housing crisis because the lower cost stock has gone..

I say this because Hastings pulled out of the 1066 Country partnership, which was a 3 decade+ long partnership between multiple councils to run the tourism board in the area. (1066 Country). They now have little funds to do much own promotion as together they were stronger and I very much doubt the council can be apart of the pier or castle project.

However aspects of Hastings are booming with it being a popular UK tourist destination, and it's old town and parts of St. Leonards on sea are very much London arty places. Locals call people who move into Hastings FILTH - Failed In London, Try Hastings !

One final interesting attraction that is located in the building where Byzantium (2012) was filmed is the True Crime Museum which opened up about 11 years ago. It's a private investment, is well done and has been successful. - people love seeing electric chairs and the like!

True Crime Museum

Hastings, East Sussex.
www.truecrimemuseum.co.uk www.truecrimemuseum.co.uk

*The development proposed for the crazy golf area. https://www.hastingsadventuregolf.com/newdevelopment.html
 
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