BLACKPOOL Pleasure Beach has its sights set on taking over the loss-making Sandcastle leisure complex for "an upmarket new attraction", the Citizen can reveal.

Pleasure Beach boss Geoffrey Thompson was on Wednesday (August 18) putting his ideas to Blackpool Council chiefs in a private meeting about the seafront fun pool which lost nearly £480,000 last year.

Before the meeting Mr Thompson told the Citizen exclusively: "We're certainly interested in the site - indeed we expressed interest before the Sandcastle was built but we were turned down at the time.

"However, we wouldn't be prepared to pay for it as it is now because it's totally unsuitable for what we want. We would be willing to take it off the council's hands for a peppercorn rent and redevelop it.

"We have some fairly advanced ideas of how we could move it upmarket very considerably to become a different sort of attraction - we've put a lot of work into it already. Obviously it's losing money as a swimming pool so it would be madness to continue the business as it is now."

The Sandcastle, with its tropical wave pool, was built opposite the Pleasure Beach after the old South Shore Open Air Baths was demolished in 1983.

But its original developer, Sunley Turriff, suffered such heavy losses that landowner Blackpool Council had to step in to form a joint operating company and help pay its debts - last year council taxpayers paid out £66,000.

This year the debts are likely to mount with the loss of rent from the complex's Magic of Coronation Street attraction which closed in the winter.

The prospect of mounting burdens for taxpayers prompted Lib-Dem group leader Coun Robert Wynne two weeks ago to call for the Pleasure Beach to make an offer.

Council leader Coun Ivan Taylor and chief executive Graham Essex-Crosby were at yesterday's meeting.

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