Center Parcs announces 'tremendously exciting' plans for new village

Center Parcs has announced plans to build a seventh holiday village. The UK holiday giant, which is based in Nottinghamshire and has a successful village in Sherwood Forest, plans to submit a planning application next year.

If approved the village will be built three miles north of Hawick and 55 miles away from Edinburgh, making the site the first Center Parcs to be built in Scotland. The site is currently grassland with some woodland, with Center Parcs planning to establish a forest there.

The site will offer a range of indoor and outdoor activities, shops, bars, restaurants, an Aqua Sana Forest Spa and Center Parcs’ indoor water park, the Subtropical Swimming Paradise. Colin McKinlay, Chief Executive Officer of Center Parcs, 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. Sustainability is core to our values. In our three decades of operating in the UK and Ireland, we have transformed areas of commercial woodland into a rich tapestry of flora and fauna, considerably enhancing the biodiversity of each village.

"This site gives us the opportunity to take a bold, new approach and create a woodland ourselves, delivering significant biodiversity net gain and planting thousands of new trees. We are at an early stage with these proposals and have a lengthy and thorough planning process ahead. 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.”

During the construction phase of the project, 750-800 mainly regional jobs will be created. Once operational, the village is expected to create around 1,200 permanent non-seasonal jobs. These will be largely local jobs and offer significant career opportunities, including management positions. The estimated investment to build the new village will be between £350m-£400m.

The site lies to the east of the A7 trunk road between Hawick and Selkirk on land owned by the Buccleuch Group, which has signed an agreement with Center Parcs. The agreement covers approximately 1,000 acres of land, comprising open grassland and some woodland. It is expected that development on the site will extend to 400 acres.