Tropicana Facility not up for sale, insists councillor
ANORTH Somerset councillor has insisted it is “not true” that Weston-super-Mare’s Tropicana is up for sale – after others at the council had said the option was on the table.
John Crockford-Hawley, who chairs North Somerset Council’s placemaking scrutiny panel, told a meeting of the panel last week that he wanted to put a stop to speculation that the council was selling the former lido.
Mr Crockford-Hawley, pictured, said: “There has been some speculation on Facebook that we are selling the Tropicana, and I think it is very important that we should all say from across the political spectrum that is not true. We have not put the Tropicana up for sale.”
A working group was set up by North Somerset Council to consider options for the lido after the art installation See Monster left the site.
The council’s executive member for placemaking and economy, Mark Canniford, had said selling the Tropicana was one of the options being considered if someone had a “costed and funded vision”.
Head of placemaking and development, Jenny Ford, told the scrutiny panel: “We are getting approaches from people who are interested in the Tropicana, not necessarily to buy but to operate.”
She added that the facility was “not up for sale” but she suspected the council would be interested if they were offered a large amount of money for it.
The council is open to people approaching it with ideas for the running of the building. She said: “We want to talk to people whose ideas are viable. We as a council don’t have money to keep ploughing into it.”
The Tropicana opened in 1937 but closed as a lido in 2000. A working group in 2011 recommended demolishing the building but it was saved after a campaign headed by farmer and businessman Derek Mead, who wanted to restore it as a swimming pool.
The venue has since hosted art installations such as Banksy’s Dismaland in 2015 and most recently See Monster, which closed earlier this month.
North Somerset Council was approached for comment but had not responded as the Post went to press.