Center Parcs plans first Scottish holiday village

Holiday village operator Center Parcs has unveiled plans for its first site in Scotland.

The new resort near Hawick in the Scottish Borders would represent a £350m investment and could create up to 1,200 jobs.

Center Parcs currently attracts millions of visitors a year to its six sites across the UK and Ireland.

Proposals are said to be at an "early stage" with a planning application for about 700 lodges intended to be submitted in 2025.

It will offer a range of indoor and outdoor activities including an indoor water park.

Chief executive 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."

He said the area was the "ideal location" for expansion with its existing sites already full.

"We already have many guests from Scotland come to our villages in England and this affords the opportunity for more people from Scotland to enjoy a fantastic Center Parcs experience," he said.

He added that the company was "very positive" about working with the community to make the project happen.

The site is on land to the east of the A7 between Hawick and Selkirk which is owned by the Buccleuch Group.

Its executive chairman Benny Higgins said the project promised an "outstandingly positive impact" on tourism and leisure in the area.

Scottish Borders Council leader Euan Jardine described it as an "absolutely phenomenal investment" in the region.

"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 it is fantastic news and great for the area," he said.

"We are a great destination so Center Parcs are really invested here - they have seen the natural capital that we have and they wanted a piece of that."

He said there was already a great tourism offering in the region and the development would fit in well with that.

David Hope-Jones, chief executive of the South of Scotland Destination Alliance which represents hundreds of tourism businesses, welcomed the news.

"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 said.

"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."

Prof Russel Griggs, who chairs South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE), said the plans would be the biggest investment in the area since the Borders Railway.

"I am delighted Center Parcs have chosen our area to make this commitment and recognised what the south of Scotland has to offer," he said.

He said SOSE was not providing financial support but would aim to work with the company to ensure local businesses and the community benefited.

Center Parcs has been operating in the UK since 1987 but it started with a holiday village in the Netherlands in the late 1960s.

Its first venture in the UK was at Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire followed, in 1989, by Elveden Forest in Suffolk.

It now has six sites in total at Longleat Forest in Wiltshire, Whinfell Forest in Cumbria, Woburn Forest in Bedfordshire and its first Irish site - Longford Forest - in County Longford.

They attract more than two million visitors every year and are particularly popular with families - offering a range of on-site activities and facilities.

Last year Center Parcs announced it had dropped plans for a new village at Oldhouse Warren, West Sussex, after concluding it was not suitable for the project.