As many as 900 builders staying at a Pontins holiday have been slammed for not spending enough money in local businesses.
EDF staff working to build the £46bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant have taken over Pontins Brean Sands in Somerset for the year, with the energy company promising locals “year-round” spending.
But now traders say the move has “decimated” the resort and seen little uplift in business at nearby shops, pubs and restaurants.
More than £1bn has been spent with local firms on the project itself, but many raised concerns when EDF took over the holiday camp, saying it would be the first time Hinkley Point C had damaged local trade as builders would not spend the same amount of cash as families on holiday.
Speaking to the BBC in 2023, Hinkley bosses said their project would “bring more people to Brean”.
Andrew Cockroft, who runs the stakeholder engagement programme at Hinkley Point C, oversaw a £2m repainting and refurbishment project on Pontins’ holiday chalets and hired a marketing team to promote the camp before the builders moved in.
Pontins reopens this Easter weekend and when asked by the BBC if the builders had caused an uplift in trade during the off-season, the vast majority said no.
Alan House, who runs Unity Holiday Resort and chairs the tourism association, Discover Brean, was among those criticising them.
He told the BBC: “Generally speaking they’re all either on shift or asleep.
“They don’t tend to come out into the local economy, we haven’t seen anything of them over the winter at all.”
Charles Holland, who runs an amusement arcade directly opposite the holiday park said very few of the workers had used his business.
He said: “They keep themselves to themselves, I think they’re here to work really.
“We have lost trade yes, it has been a big thing for us losing the Pontins customers.”
But Hinkley Point C bosses rejected claims the builders had hit the pocket of locals.
Mr Cockroft continued: “Brean was not alone in experiencing a visitor downturn last summer – thousands of tourism businesses across the south west reported reduced numbers and income.
“The particularly wet peak months of July and August, combined with the cost-of-living crisis, deterred many families.”
