March 12, 2018

Work is due to begin on the first stage of a new £500,000 adventure golf course at Clacton Pier this week.

A team will start to construct the mezzanine floor for the major attraction on Thursday and it is expected to be open to the public in July.

Foundations are already in place and in-house staff are to put up the floor in preparation for the arrival of the American firm who will be installing the course, which will be on two floors – both inside and outside.

The company is looking to move onto the Pier to begin the next stage of the golf feature next month.

The adventure golf course will be followed by new first floor dodgems, a £500,000 children’s play area, a new coffee shop -  also all to be finished by July - and other attractions as part of a £4 million development project.

Pier director Billy Ball said that a great deal of progress has been made over the past week or so to make up for time lost during the snow and big freeze.

“By the end of last week, we had around 45 workers, both in-house and outside contractors, pulling out all the stops to catch up some of the many hours lost due to bad weather,” he said.

“I am really pleased with their efforts and a lot has been achieved in terms of installing the new water mains, laying foundations, electric cabling and continuing with the reinstatement of the roof.

“We are experiencing a great deal of interest in this project, which will make us one of the premier attractions in East Anglia, and we intend to keep residents updated regularly on how it is coming on.

“With the eastern side of the structure opened up people will be able to see much of the work taking place – or they can come onto the Pier itself to view it from the amusement arcade.”

The whole development is anticipated being fully completed early next year with the Pier remaining open throughout.

“The Easter holiday is now fast approaching and all our rides will operating as normal along with other attractions, as is currently the situation at weekends,” Mr Ball added.

“Hopefully we will get some warmer weather to bring people down to Clacton and Tendring over that Bank Holiday period.”

The Pier’s first free Firework Extravaganza of the year will take place on Sunday April 1. There will be seven in all during 2018.