Iconic East Sutherland holiday park Grannie's Heilan’ Hame at Embo gets new food outlets and outdoor seating after Parkdean investment.
A UK holiday operator has invested hundreds of thousands of pounds into upgrading its popular East Sutherland seaside resort.
Parkdean Resorts has introduced two new food outlets and extended its beer garden at the picturesque Grannie’s Heilan’ Hame Holiday Park in Embo.
The new outdoor food outlets, Joe’s American Grill, which will serve takeaway pizza alongside classic American favourites, and Scoop’s Ice Cream, open today.
There is a new outdoor seating area next to these units.
As a result of the changes, Parkdean has had to apply for a ‘variation of premises licence’ to extend its licence to cover the new areas where food and drink will be consumed.
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Its application was heard at a meeting of Highland Council’s Licensing Board in Inverness on Monday, where members were told that no objections had been received and the application complied with licensing regulations and policy.
The application was approved, but there was some discussion about whether a “local order” should be imposed to restrict drinking in the new outdoor seating areas to 10pm rather than 1am as at present.
The 10pm curfew was recommended by the council’s licensing officer because of the extra noise it was felt the new spaces would create.
The holiday park’s general manager, Fraser Sharp, was at the meeting with Parkdean's licensing manager, Andrew Kemp, and the company’s solicitor, Nial Hassard.
Mr Hassard said Grannie’s, located next to beautiful Embo beach, was unique in Parkdean’s portfolio and a “hidden gem”.
Grannies now has a total of 433 pitches, 226 of which are privately owned with the remainder split between 96 static caravans available for hire and 111 spaces for tents or touring motorhomes.
The resort employs over 80 staff at peak summer times but has a core staff of 18 employees all year round.
Mr Hassard said there had been a “really significant investment of many hundreds of thousands of pounds” to upgrade the park.
“That investment has been the catalyst to tidy up the licence; clearly there were things we had to do, like change the lay-out plans and update the capacity,” he said.
He went on to say there was no justification or need for a 10pm drinking curfew, as the nearest residential properties were hundreds of metres away.
Councillors Drew Miller, Skye, and Sean Kennedy, Dingwall, felt the hospitality trade should be protected and that 10pm was a “step backwards instead of a step forwards”. Members of the licensing board went on to vote 8:2 in favour of allowing drinking in outdoor areas until 1am.
