The abandoned Pontins that angry locals say is 'ruining' famous UK seaside town

The model giraffe towering over Pontins in Camber Sands has closed its eyes. Worn down by the winds that whip across the East Sussex coast, its once-detailed lashes have disappeared into the dull orange undercoat.

Perhaps it is a blessing the model creature is spared a prime view of its deteriorating home, a place that, at its height, was one of the South East's most glamorous resorts.

But the days when Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman held annual dance competitions and evening line-ups contained Freddie Starr and Bob Monkhouse are long gone.

Now, all that lies behind the peeling blue-painted fence are black tarpaulin-covered sand pits, dried-up water gun amusements, chalets missing parts of their walls and, of course, the blind giraffe.

The closure of the 3,000-capacity Pontins holiday park last year meant that this summer, for the first time in 56 years, the village of Camber didn't have a steady stream of holidaymakers pottering towards the beach from the resort.

It's not like the demise was a complete shock. The holiday camp's reputation had been trashed by countless criticising its cleanliness and on angry families complaining the living conditions had ruined their precious breaks.

Regardless of Pontins' current standing, losing the heartbeat of its economy since 1968 has painfully affected the local village.

"Pontins was great," lifelong resident and councillor Sean Clarke tells the Express. "Especially when we were growing up. In the 80s we used to have all the top bands and celebrities, they had wrestling, swimming pools and dances.

"It started going downhill in the mid-90s [and in recent years there were stories which showed how recently it had become] dirty and filthy. People would get on Facebook and say it needed 'shutting down', but it didn't, it needed keeping open.

"You could have a week-long holiday for £144. People could save £9.99 a week to come here. But since it closed there is no nighttime economy in Camber."

Clarke is talking to the Express in The Castle, a pub that, on a good day, could serve 150 breakfasts to Pontins customers and, when Rockabilly fans were in town for one of the adults-only weekends, sell 36 kegs of beer. The landlord estimates his losses from the closure are in the thousands.

The resort's decline had, in some respects, meant local businesses benefited even more from the camp's proximity. The Express heard many stories about disgruntled holidaymakers seeking food or, in some cases, alternative accommodation in the surrounding area.

Although tens of thousands of people still descend on the miles of sandy beach around Camber, which is just two hours from London, since Pontins disappeared they don't benefit the village in the same way.

"They just get in the car and go home," Clarke adds. "There's nothing else for them. Those who stay in an Airbnb have deliveries from Tesco and don't come out."

Neha Patel, owner of Camber Post Office, claims she still gets a healthy number of customers stopping off to buy buckets and spades or towels on their way to the beach. But her cavernous shop, which sells everything from scart leads to chopped tomatoes and Ciroc Vodka, misses having the seasonal staff employed by Pontins stopping off.

"Most of the DIY or the professional kind of staff were local," she explains. "But the people who were in the customer field serving in the kitchen [or] cleaning were all from outside and most of them lived on-site.

"It was a bit of a shock when we found out it was closing and we've had the whole summer without them. This year it has been a lot quieter but [that's more because] the weather hasn't supported us."

In a village of already limited opportunity losing an employer like Pontins is felt by almost every household. Every resident the Express spoke to had either worked for the holiday resort themselves or had a friend or relative who did.

One of those is Karen Wright, 44, whose mother and father both had jobs at Pontins at various stages during their lifetimes. She recalls with great warmth the vast crowds of holidaymakers who gave the village a buzz.

"I'm born and bred in Camber so I remember when I was little how it used to be absolutely packed," she says.

"They used to have different competitions and things like that in the main halls. I remember doing a majorette show. But it was so different in those times.

"We had arcades on the seafront, trampolines, donkeys and banana boats. All that's gone now. You were probably talking about 80,000 people being down on the beach during the summer, now we get half of that.

"Pontins was a huge attraction [for Camber] and it was such a shame when they started to let it go."

When Pontins Camber Sands opened in the 1960s it was considered a major coup for the area. The brand was an established British household name beloved by baby-boomer families for their affordable holidays at seaside resorts across the nation.

Often considered a lower-cost alternative to Butlins, its bluecoat entertainers have produced talent ranging from Shane Richie to Bobby Davro, Bradley Walsh to Lee Mack.

But as foreign travel became increasingly mainstream in the 1990s and people chose to holiday at resorts abroad Pontins struggled.

By 2010 the firm, which had changed hands many times, was in administration. It was pulled back from the brink thanks to a buyout by budget accommodation provider and current owner Britannia Hotels.

When the deal was sealed CEO Alex Langsam was bullish about the opportunity to reboot the brand. "We believe there is a growing demand for traditional seaside holidays and we are prepared to back this judgement with considerable investment," he said.

However, a brief post-Covid boom in domestic travel aside, it's been a bleak decade of continued decline for British seaside resorts.

Britannia Hotels has increasingly repurposed its accommodation by controversially housing asylum seekers for the Home Office. Reports last year that one in ten of the firm's rooms were being used by migrants at the taxpayer's expense.

Before it closed, plans were afoot to repurpose Pontins Camber Sands as an asylum-seeker hotel. However, the local authority, Rother Council, which owns the land the camp is on, raised multiple concerns about the lack of infrastructure and the government abandoned the idea.

"I didn't think a lot about that," Wright says of the proposed migrant hotel. "I think people felt very upset by it. It's not something that should be done. It's a holiday place not somewhere to put up the migrants."

Local hopes are now pinned on a saviour like Butlin's restoring it to its former glory.

The Express spoke to several locals who claimed to have met and spoken to officials from Butlin's although they were non-committal about the prospect of the company buying the site.

the CEO of Pontins longtime rival, John Hendry Pickup, revealed they'd made contact with Britannia about the possibility of acquiring two Pontins sites closed at the same time as Camber Sands in the North West, but didn't mention Sussex.

When asked by the Express a Butlin's spokesperson denied anyone from the business had visited Camber and said it wasn't considering buying the site.

"We have our Bognor Regis resort [in neighbouring West Sussex] so wouldn't consider that location," they added. "The opportunity is in the North West where we don't have a resort and we continue to have conversations, however there's no update to our position at this stage."

A challenge for any buyer is the level of disrepair. Strong winds saw part of the roof of the main building come flying off earlier this year and there is known to be asbestos in the flooring.

Exclusive drone footage shot by the Express reveals a decaying ghost town in need of considerable work to make it a desirable destination once again.

We asked Britannia what its plans for the Camber Sands site were, whether it would comment on the level of disrepair and if it had any message to locals. Britannia did not respond.

Residents of the village are in little doubt about the impact of Pontins' closure.

"It's killed Camber," Councillor Clarke adds. "All we've got is that beach now."

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