BORDERS businesses need to grasp the opportunities the announcement that a £350m Center Parcs can bring if the region is to maximise the benefits.
That’s the message from Trevor Jackson, entrepreneur and chair of the Scottish Borders Chamber of Commerce, after the holiday village operator announced it was heading north of the border for the first time.
Center Parcs, which currently has six sites across the UK and Ireland, announced this week at Hawick Rugby Club that it had signed an option agreement with Buccleuch Group to acquire around 1,000 acres of land just to the north of Hawick, and east of the A7, which is currently open grassland and some woodland.
Presenting to community, political and business leaders on Tuesday, Center Parcs revealed a plan to develop around 400 acres with a programme of afforestation, cultivating a new woodland on some of the existing grassland, and building of around 700 holiday lodges alongside leisure facilities, including an indoor water park and spa. They state that the new Scottish Borders resort – its first in Scotland – would require a £350m investment and potentially create up to 1,200 permanent jobs on top of several hundred construction jobs.
Center Parcs UK CEO Colin McKinlay said: “This is a tremendously exciting project and offers the opportunity to transform leisure and tourism in the Scottish Borders.
“Center Parcs is an exceptionally popular destination for families in the UK and Ireland and there is robust demand to support a seventh village. Throughout our history, we have demonstrated that a Center Parcs village provides significant economic benefits locally, regionally and nationally.
“Many Scottish families already visit Center Parcs villages in England, and this village will offer the chance for people to enjoy their holidays closer to home, which in turn will benefit the local economy.:
Mr Jackson welcomed the announcement and said he would be working with local businesses in the next year to look at how they can support the venture and ensure a sizeable chunk of the investment goes into the local area.
“There is obviously a path to travel yet,” he said, “but this is a welcome sign of the opportunities that exist in the Scottish Borders and it’s fantastic that Center Parcs has recognised the outstanding natural landscapes of the area.
“The key for me now is both that Center Parcs work closely with the Borders business community to ensure that that investment has real benefits and impact for the area and the people who live here. It is also very important that local businesses do not sit back and wait for opportunities, but once it becomes apparent what the venture will entail and needs, I will be encouraging them to engage quickly with the procurement process.
“We welcome the vision and ambition of Center Parcs to invest so heavily in the Borders, and we also will be encouraging them to work with the Chamber in order to help it to be the best it can be.”
Mr McKinlay agreed that the success of the venture would rely on local community input, and benefit. He said: “We see this as a game-changer for the Scottish Borders.
“Local business will benefit, hospitality will benefit and tourism will benefit as well as the broader community in the Borders. We are very keen to work with local communities to develop plans.
“We’ve got a proven track record of using local suppliers wherever possible, whether that’s in our restaurants or the local communities that can supply to us, and that has a further economic benefit for local communities and business.”
Center Parcs started with a holiday village in the Netherlands in the late 1960s. Its first venture in the UK came in 1987 at Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire followed, in 1989, by Elveden Forest in Suffolk. Now a separate business to Center Parcs Europe, Center Parcs UK has six sites – Longleat Forest in Wiltshire, Whinfell Forest in Cumbria, Woburn Forest in Bedfordshire and its first Irish site, Longford Forest, in County Longford, coming on stream in the past 30 years.
The UK and Ireland sites are said to be 97 percent full year round, attracting more than two million visitors each year and particularly popular with families.
Its UK owner, Canadian private equity firm Brookfield – who bought Center Parcs UK for £2.4 billion in 2015 – put it up for sale in May, 2023, seeking a bid of more than £4bn, but withdrew it from the market last November with no interest at that level.
Earlier last year, Center Parcs announced it had dropped plans for a new village at Oldhouse Warren, West Sussex, after protests by environmentalists who believed it would destroy established woodland and damage the habitats of rare birds. As a result of that change of focus, they turned their attention to Scotland, and found what they consider to be an ideal site in the Borders.
Mr McKinlay insisted then that Center Parcs were committed to protecting the environment, underlined by their decision not to proceed in West Sussex. He acknowledged today that there was still much work to do before a Scottish Center Parcs becomes a reality.
“We are at an early stage with these proposals and have a lengthy and thorough planning process ahead,” he added. “We have already conducted a significant number of surveys to assess the site and we intend to continue with additional site surveys and design development, alongside a programme of pre-planning application consultation and community engagement.”
It will be up to Scottish Borders Council to scrutinise the plans in detail and provide planning consent for the development with Mr McKinlay stating that he hoped the first planning application for the holiday lodges could be submitted in 2025. Providing the planning process progresses smoothly, construction is then expected to take up to three years, so it is not likely to be open for business before 2029.
However, SBC leader Euan Jardine believes it could provide a major boost to the Borders economy and encouraged local communities to take an active role in the planning process to ensure it complemented existing leisure and tourism provision and did not damage what the Borders already has.
“To have a company with such a nationwide and worldwide name as Center Parcs invest in the Borders – the first in Scotland as well – I think is fantastic news and great for the area,” he said.
“We are a great destination and Center Parcs are really invested here – they have seen the natural capital that we have and they wanted a piece of that.”
David Hope-Jones, chief executive of the South of Scotland Destination Alliance which represents hundreds of tourism businesses, believes it would complement the Borders’ existing tourism infrastructure.
“The scale of the investment and potential is immense; it represents a huge endorsement of our region’s fast-growing reputation as a year-round destination,” he commented.
“With many thousands of visitors each year expected to stay at the proposed Center Parcs village, this is a huge opportunity to see many of them exploring the local area before, during and after their visits, increasing spend in the local tourism economy.”
More information and updates on the plans will be posted in coming months here – www.centerparcsscotland.co.uk.
”“Throughout our history, we have demonstrated that a Center Parcs village provides significant economic benefits locally, regionally and nationally.”
Colin McKinlayCenter Parcs UK CEO
