A working party of North Somerset Council today agreed to recommend to the council’s ruling Conservative Executive that Weston-super-Mare’s Tropicana should be demolished and the site returned to beach.

The working party has been meeting for many months and met for the final time today following the results of a round of “soft marketing testing” by the council’s appointed external professional advisors, DTZ.

The working party voted by six votes to three in favour of recommending demolition. The final decision will be made by the North Somerset Council Executive on 13th December.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Mike Bell, who is a member of the Tropicana working group and attended the meeting today, said: “This is a very sad day for Weston. The decision to demolish the Tropicana lets down present and future generations of Weston people and consigns a historic part of our town’s sea front to the scrap heap.

“I spoke and voted against this decision because we cannot honestly say that we have done everything we can to save the site. The council could have chosen to invest in the site and enable a development in that way. Conservative councillors have consistently refused to do so. North Somerset Council has contributed to the failure to redevelop the Tropicana over the past decade and it should be contributing to the cost of restoring it.”

Liberal Democrat councillors have consistently proposed a significant council contribution towards the capital costs of redeveloping the Tropicana. Their alternative budget proposals for next year, which are currently being debated by the council, propose a £10 million investment in the Tropicana site in partnership with the private sector or a community trust. The £10m council funding would be paid for through savings identified in the Lib Dem budget plan.

Councillor Bell added: “I cannot look local people in the eye and say we have done our best until I believe we have. Conservative councillors think they are being courageous in taking this decision. They could not be more wrong. It is the easiest thing in the world to knock things down, it is far harder to build things up. I would urge every local person who cares about the Tropicana’s future to contact their local councillor and fight for a change of heart. We must not let this be the end.”