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Five holiday parks across the North East are to share a £1m cash pot to boost facilities as part of an £80m investment.

Parkdean Resorts, based in Gosforth, Newcastle, is poised to plough the significant sum into all of its holiday parks across the region in Northumberland, Teesside and North Tyneside – at Church Point, in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea; Cresswell Towers at Druridge Bay, Crimdon Dene near Hartlepool, Sandy Bay in Ashington, and Whitley Bay.

The investment will see the firm upgrade accommodation and other on-park facilities, bringing in new upgraded caravans to replace old stock at all of the parks, with 10 at Sandy Bay, seven at Cresswell Towers, six at Whitley Bay, five at Crimdon Dene and three at Church Point.

The club, arcade bar and kitchen at Cresswell Towers is also set for a major makeover.

The North East parks collectively employ more than 350 staff in season, and the parks have launched a recruitment drive for seasonal staff across sales, food and beverage, and housekeeping. The investment in the North East parks is part of the company’s largest ever annual investment in its estate of £80m.

A sum of £5.8m will be invested in 2020 in a pilot ‘parks of the future’ initiative in four locations to create state-of-the-art amenities including accommodation, park facilities and kids’ activity-based entertainment such as the Bear Grylls Survival Academy.

The firm, which was acquired in a £1.35bn deal by the Canadian private equity company Onex Corporation at the end of 2016, is also investing more than £13m to provide free Wi-Fi in every caravan and lodge across all 67 of its parks across the º£½ÇÊÓƵ – an industry first.

Parkdean Resorts, which was last year named on the Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250 league table, is the º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s largest operator of caravan, lodge, cabin, glamping and camping holiday resorts, with 67 bases around the º£½ÇÊÓƵ.