Last-ditch attempt to save Rhyl's Sun Centre water park

Closed: Rhyl Sun Centre is due for demolition some time this year

A campaign has been launched in a last-ditch attempt to save a landmark water park from demolition.

More than 300 people have signed an online petition calling on Denbighshire council to stop bulldozers moving in shortly at Rhyl's Sun Centre.

The council plans to replace the complex with a new aquatics centre elsewhere on the seafront as part of a multi-million pound regeneration.

It said the Sun Centre was too expensive to run each year.

Campaign organiser Nigel Beech said many people wanted the Sun Centre retained.

"They're telling us that the building is unsafe but for a few thousand pounds I think they could make it safe and save a lot of money," he said.

"I feel very passionate about saving it. Rhyl needs a centre like this to bring in the visitors and I don't think the aquatics centre that they're proposing would be the same."

Rhyl Sun Centre shut in 2014

Mr Beech said he and his family had used the centre for many years when they travelled from Crewe for holidays in north Wales.

"We used to go regularly and I then started taking my children when we moved to Rhyl four years ago," he added.

"It would be such a shame to see it disappear."

Officials have previously said that the demolition of the Sun Centre will be an important step forward in its plans to regenerate the seafront, using public and private sector funding.

Clearing the Sun Centre site will pave the way for the refurbishment of the adjoining Pavilion Theatre's ground and first floors, creating a green public space and more parking facilities.

A Denbighshire council spokesman said: "While we are aware that many hold feelings of nostalgia towards the Sun Centre, the building as it exists today costs the council thousands of pounds every year to maintain - money we feel would be better invested in the area's future."