A SEASIDE town's dream of becoming home to the UK's first indoor Legoland Discovery Centre is over after the multi-million pound scheme collapsed.

Scarborough had hoped to see the prestigious project form part of the resort's North Bay Sands development, with council chiefs hailing it as "the biggest news to hit Scarborough in recent history" when it was announced earlier this year.

But now Legoland's parent company Merlin Entertainments has pulled the plug on the £150 million scheme, preferring to concentrate on investing in the US and mainland Europe instead.

The centre was scheduled to open next Easter and would have been one of only a handful worldwide, boasting a giant Lego giraffe at the entrance, themed areas, a Lego factory tour and a hall of fame, with Scarborough Borough Council earmarking it as the jewel in the crown of the Sands' main visitor attraction.

The council's chief executive, Jim Dillon, said: "We are naturally very disappointed to receive this news. We were always aware that the locating of a Legoland Discovery Centre in Scarborough was not a foregone conclusion and that Merlin Entertainments were looking at other possible locations. Our challenge was to make sure we did everything asked of us to make the proposal possible, and we have done that."

He said: "We have had a dedicated team working continuously on the project for the last few months in order to do everything possible to develop this attraction in the town and Merlin have praised the council and developers Benchmark Leisure for their enthusiasm and support for the project."

But he said the shock announcement would not damage the Sands scheme.

He said: "We have to accept the decision and move forward. The momentum of progress on the Sands project before the Legoland opportunity arose was and remains positive and we will continue to work with Benchmark to ensure the development is a success."

A Benchmark Leisure spokesman said: "We are obviously hugely disappointed, and despite both ourselves and the council meeting every legal, financial, planning and design challenge required to meet the proposed opening date, a decision has been taken which is ultimately out of our hands."

9:47am Thursday 27th March 2008

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