A seaside town previously dubbed one of the UK's 'worst' is with fighting back with a £20 million boost and by sticking to offering the "traditional" experience the local mayor claims brings in 50,000 visitors a week. Last year a survey by consumer brand firm Which? ranked Mablethorpe, Lincs, as one of the lowest rates coastal towns in the country after polling around 4,700 people.

But fast-forward a year and Mablethorpe has invested millions in new attractions, including a leisure centre, children's play centre, learning hub and beachfront observatory.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, Mayor Cllr Claire Arnold said the survey was "bonkers" and the number of people coming to enjoy the sun, sea and sighs of the East Lincolnshire was proof enough the town was doing something right.

She said: “During peak season, June, July and August, we have 50,000 visitors a week, which speaks for itself. When you look at these surveys, I think you have to do it on a like-for-like basis, and we lost points because we don’t have a pier, which is just ridiculous.

“To lose points because you don’t have a pier is bonkers.

“We got so much going on, in this last year we’ve had a family leisure centre built, with a state-of-the-art gym and swimming pool, and MagnaTag, which is a play centre for all ages of children, and we’ve just purchased an old building which will be able to service our parish.

“We’ve got a brand new Campus for Future Living centre, providing training in medical technology for clinicians, which delivers services locally towards housing and social care.

“And we have the Sea View Colonnade, just down the road in Sutton-on-Sea, which is like an observatory on the beach.

As well as new additions to the town, Cllr Arnold fiercely defended the type of traditional seaside experience people come to Mablethorpe for, including fish and chips, hot dogs and ice cream.

She added: “I would say to anyone who has never been here, they need to come. Some people say we are traditional arcades, ice cream and hot dogs, but that is why people come here because that is what they want.

“It’s such a way of life, we embrace what we have, we love our Blue Flag beaches and miniature railway sand train that takes people up and down the beach.

“We’ve got so much going on, my biggest takeaway from the surveys is they can survey out of season, and life looks very different here in the winter than it does in the school holidays.

“We should be judged on what we deliver and not the fact we don’t have a pier."

Finally Cllr Arnold said two recent retail chains arriving to the Mablethorpe had made a big difference in an area which does not always have access to stores other people might take for granted.

She continued: “We have a Tesco here now, which may seem quite irrelevant to some people, but that’s huge, and then we’ve got a B&M. People might think they are on every corner, but not in our corner of the world."