Huge boost for UK seaside town compared to North Korea as it gets new £1.8m bridge

A UK seaside town, once ranked along with North Korea and Syria as one of the worst places to go on holiday, has been given a huge boost in the form of a new £1.8m bridge. Skegness, Lincolnshire, is known as one of the UK's most popular seaside towns, welcoming around 4 million visitors each year.

However, the iconic destination has had a mixed reputation recently after Destination Tips placed it among the ten worst holiday destinations in the world in 2017. Slamming Skegness,the travel website wrote: "Once thought of as a quaint seaside town in northern England, Skegness is now a pile of dirt bordering the North Sea with a run-down amusement park idly resting on the land." The controversial ranking put the town behind Damascus in Syria, which had faced years of war since 2011 at the time of the report.

But brighter things may be on the horizon for the iconic northern seaside resort as plans to build a bridge at Gibraltar Point near Skegness have been agreed by Lincolnshire County Council.

The bridge is part of the King Charles III coastal path, which will create a continuous walking route around the entire English coastline.

The bridge's main structure is expected to last up to 120 years, while the bridge deck is anticipated to last up to 50 years.

Under the plan,s once the coastal path is completed, Natural England will fund 75% of the maintenance costs and the county council will cover the remaining 25%.

Chris Miller, head of environment at the county council, said the bridge was a "key piece of infrastructure" for the scheme.

"It is also the single largest and most costly piece of infrastructure across the whole project," he added.

Miller said the council would play a part in route selection and the building works on the path.

"Both of these elements are 100% funded by the government in legal agreements reviewed each year for these works," he explained.

Mr Miller adds that this bridge would play a part in route selection and the building works on the path.

He added: "In Lincolnshire, the majority of the route from Sutton Bridge to the Humber Bridge is open.

"This is a really key piece of infrastructure for Natural England and the programme itself."