An artificial archipelago may soon be gracing Scarborough’s South Bay after plans for the same were submitted. The inspiration for the island are the Palm Jumeirah islands in Dubai. The island is intended to hold a water sports centre complete with a lagoon, an entertainment centre, eateries and accommodations for people on holiday. The company behind the plans is Flora Lopi, a French development company that is well known for coming up with one-of-a-kind holiday resorts. Pierre Fausses-Nouvelles, the CEO of the company stated that he is hoping the island will be usable throughout the year.
The CEO stated that the company was planning to use the resort to make the seasons longer so families could make use of the five-star location during the summer while during the winter months it could be used by extreme surfers. He also added that the company was planning to give the locals entertainment throughout the year by inviting touring shows to perform at the island’s theatre.
The Investment Manager for Scarborough, Nick Taylor stated that Scarborough would be placed on the map if a resort of this kind was built in the south bay. The statement was intended both figuratively and literally as he mentioned that Dubai’s Palm is actually visible on Google earth. He added that having something like what they had in Dubai right here on the Yorkshire Coast would mean a great deal of publicity for the region.
This is not the only such project that the French development company is currently planning for. Flora Lopi is already involved in projects of a similar kind along the European coast with each of the islands being created intended to reflect the landmarks and local culture in the area where they are created. The island will have an accommodation Jetty, the main resort area and an enclosed lagoon for water sports. If a project of this magnitude was actualized, the local area would benefit from the increased number of jobs and there’d also be more money for the local economy.
According to Pierre Fausses-Nouvelles, this is also a concept that was inspired by the Palm Islands in Dubai. He stated that the company wanted to design something that would highlight Yorkshire Seaside’s heritage in the Scarborough project, in a similar way to how the palm tree was something that was associated with Dubai. It’s because of this that the proposed island is in the shape of a Donkey.