Luxury lodges to help tempt visitors

A MULTI-MILLION pound investment will see 33 luxury holiday homes built at a leisure park in Derbyshire.

The £2.5m development of the leisure lodges will take place in two phases at Ashbourne Heights Park, formerly known as Highfields Park, near Fenny Bentley.

Extensive refurbishment of the park will be included in the investment and is expected to increase the annual number of visitors by 2,500.

Derbyshire contractors have already been employed on the scheme at the leisure park, which attracts around 12,000 visitors each year.

ACF Groundworks, of Ashbourne, is carrying out initial works such as groundworks and landscaping.

Chesterfield firm Roe Developments will be the main contractor for construction work.

Once built, it is expected to create 10 new jobs and increase levels of tourism in the surrounding area, benefiting the economy in Fenny Bentley, Tissington and Ashbourne itself.

Councillor Alan Hodkinson, of Ashbourne Town Council, said: "An additional 2,500 people visiting the area each year will be very welcome and a great boost to the economy of the town.

"Tourism is very important to Ashbourne and over the last 10 years we've seen an increase in the numbers of people visiting the area.

The park is on the southern tip of the Derbyshire Peak District and near Dovedale. Dubbed Tissington Square, the project is so far made up of three show lodges which were completed in December and, by the end of this month, five additional lodges will be finished.

This first phase of the development will also include two further plots that will be ready by early March.

The lodges will be sold as second homes and for holiday rental. A local agent will be instructed to market the properties.

Phase two of the project will begin in late spring when another area of Ashbourne Heights Park will undergo landscaping, ready for 23 further lodges.

The 40-acre park is one of nine parks that make up North Dales Leisure Parks.

It is a group of eight leisure parks and one residential park located in North Yorkshire, Cumbria, County Durham and Northumberland.

The leisure parks offer a range of accommodation, including caravan holiday homes, leisure lodges and facilities for camping and touring caravans. Ashbourne Heights is managed by Sheffield firm Grand Leisure.

John Cahill, managing director of Grand Leisure, said: "UK holidays are set to become more popular this decade.

"All the research shows this and there are a number of reasons: value for money, the strength of the euro, the consumer's increasing awareness of carbon emissions and the likelihood that cheap flights will become less available."

Grand Leisure believes there is also a demand for higher quality accommodation among UK holiday-makers, either to purchase or for letting out to visitors.