Coney Beach Amusement Park, Porthcawl, to close, owners announce
"We will miss it greatly and while we are sad to see our time here come to an end we are forever grateful to have had the opportunity to have been part of so many generations of families lives, young and old," the owners added. "Thank you for sharing our love of 'all the fun of the fair' and the legacy that Coney Beach leaves."
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BBC investigates alleged cocaine use by two Strictly Come Dancing stars
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a day ago
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Like a dad bod in swimwear, Torquay has looked a little awkward wearing the 'English Riviera' label in recent decades. A poster child for our faded seaside towns, the notion that this once-great resort could still be considered England's answer to Cannes has seemed, for a long time, faintly absurd, despite the French city's inflated reputation. Less so today. On this sunny afternoon along the revamped harbour, ice cream-clutching families sit among the flowers watching swanky yachts sway in the quay, as diners spill out of seafood restaurants and pubs fill up. In nearby Princess Gardens, shiny new hoardings surround the Victorian-era Pavilion – for decades a crumbling monument to past glories – now being scoped out for renovation. There's optimism in the air, providing you don't walk too far up the high street. The town is also rewriting its hospitality story. 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'All the screw heads on all the switches and sockets point down,' says Andy. I test him on this, scouring The 25 for an erroneous horizontal screw, but without success. I give up and go to bed with Frank. I sleep like a baby and eat like a king. Breakfast at The 25 is as indulgent as the decor. There are homemade yogurts, pastries, fruit pots, fruit shots and a choice of cooked breakfast. 'It spoils you, staying here,' coos the woman on the table next to me. She and her husband are down from Fleet, Hampshire. It's their sixth time at The 25. 'We were never the sort to come back to places, but we love it here; we get looked after.' Encouragingly for me, given my ambition to open a B&B one day, Andy and Julian came into hospitality with no prior experience. They previously worked in the corporate world – Julian in IT, Andy in customer services – but it left them unfulfilled. Impulsively, they quit their old lives and bought a 400-year-old hotel, the Plas Dinas Country House, in Snowdonia. 'It was quite rundown and had just lost its three-star rating,' says Andy. 'But we turned it around – it was five star when we left.' It still is. In fact, it's just been crowned Wales' best restaurant with rooms at the very same AA awards. Prince William, then based on Anglesey with the RAF, was a regular. A framed picture of him at the property hangs in the hall at The 25. In the end, the rambling Welsh pile proved too much, so they downsized and moved to Torquay, grateful to leave Snowdonia's weather behind. It's sunnier down here with brighter days ahead, reckons Julian. 'Torquay is getting back to where it should be,' he says. The old swimwear is starting to fit again.
