Future is bright for couple's ice rink venture
AHUSBAND and wife team are skating in their own winter wonderland after launching the region’s newest ice rinks and now plan to expand their leisure business in the new year.
Ron and Carol Scott recently opened two rinks in Tynemouth Park after setting up new venture Zero Ice and now have further plans for the park after taking over much of its lease in 2004.
Since then the pair have opened up two major attractions at the park, which are Lost World Adventure Golf, a dinosaur-themed 18-hole crazy golf course, and Longsands cafe, which they refurbished and reopened five years ago.
Mr Scott, previously a civil engineer, and his wife, who has practised as a nurse, set up their original business Longsands Ltd in 2000 after taking over the No.61 Guest House & Tea Rooms on Front Street, Tynemouth, and have since built up a 40-strong workforce.
The pair, who also operate the park’s boating lake as part of the lease, now plan to reach an agreement with North Tyneside Council over a number of ideas they have to further expand their operations at the park.
The new rinks, which encompass a 32x16m rink and a smaller child’s rink, also provide skates so that visitors to the park can on impulse take to the rink.
Mr Scott, who has three children and lives with his wife in Tynemouth, said: “We’ve been delighted to work with North Tyneside Council as business tenants of the park over the last five years, creating improvements such as the cafe, crazy golf course and boating lake, all of which have been successful in attracting visitors and creating jobs.
“All those facilities are busy through the spring, summer and autumn, and we realised that we needed to complement them with a winter activity which would help attract more people to the park during the winter months and add another activity for those that visit anyway.
“We are now in talks with the council over other plans we have in mind for the park, which we hope to begin work on in the new year.”
The couple’s plan has been bacled with finance from Yorkshire Bank. Chris Middleton, business partner at the bank’s Newcastle Financial Solutions Centre, said: “Ron and Carol have an excellent track record of taking over facilities which can be made successful with proper flare and management and making them successful.
“In doing so they have created several jobs during the last few years.”
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