Crazy golf site worth £280k sold for £1

The Burney Group has planning permission to build a Travelodge and Starbucks

A seafront plot of land in Skegness is being sold for one pound to make way for a new Travelodge and Starbucks.

The former crazy golf site in South Parade is understood to have a market value of around £280,000.

East Lindsey District Council said it had agreed to sell it for just one pound so developers could start work "within months".

Cllr Steve Kirk said the land had been "underused for many years" and the sale would lead to jobs and investment.

The plot of land in South Parade has been unused since 2018

In January 2023, The Burney Group was granted planning permission to build a six-storey, 80-bed Travelodge hotel and drive-through Starbucks on the site which has been vacant since 2018.

Cllr Kirk said the council had sold the land cheaply because the cost of building there is high as it is "low lying" and would need "substantial" foundations.

He described the sale as "a win-win for everybody" which would generate 30 full-time jobs and around £130,000 a year for the council in business rates "which will be spent on the residents and the services they value".

"The monthly search volume on Google alone is 3,600 searching for Travelodge Skegness so we know it will do well when it gets here," he added.

Guest house owner Joanne Veseli fears local hoteliers will lose business

Premier Inn opened a hotel on another seafront plot in Skegness in April 2019.

Joanne Veseli, owner of the Philmar Guest House in Skegness, said she was "very angry" at the sale.

"It's just taking business away from us, the local hoteliers," she said.

"We don't need another national chain.

"When the Premier Inn came I didn't think it would impact me or local B&Bs but I was mistaken because I think it has because we can't compete with the prices."

Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].