Entry charge for pleasure beach

Blackpool Pleasure Beach is to start charging an entrance fee for the first time in its history.

It will cost £5 to get into the theme park, one of Lancashire's most popular tourist attractions, from next year.

Visitors will either have to purchase a pre-pay wristband or a freedom pass which includes admission to five rides.

A spokeswoman for the site said the move would bring them into line with similar parks and enable them to offer an improved experience to visitors.

Millions of people go to the pleasure beach each year and it has had free entry since it opened more than a hundred years ago in 1896.

There are 125 rides at the park which include The Big One, Europe's tallest and fastest rollercoaster.