Who is Blackpool Prom building owner Gayna Sedgwick-Ruddigan?

Gayna Sedwick-Ruddigan, 45, is the daughter of Peter and Sue Sedgwick whose Victorian forbears ran the Sedgwick Bioscopic Showfront, an early cinema attraction, in the resort.

At the time family members also had a travelling menagerie and the current family are proud of the showman roots.

On buying the pyramid building, which she had rented for some years for her fish and chip shop and other businesses, she said: "I grew up here and have worked in the tourism and hospitality industry since I was nine. My family originate from the fairground and have expanded their business over 40 years, which now means they own Blackpool’s three piers – North, South and Central."

Her father Peter began working on North Pier as an amusements attendant. He bought North Pier, keeping a long-standing promise to his wife Sue, in 2011 from Trevor Hemmings' Six Piers Group.

In 2015 he swooped for Central and South Pier too after both had been put on the market by Mr Hemmings. Peter had already operated the rides and amusements there for some years.

He said at the time: "We have been linked to the piers for more than 18 years with the rides, a lot of people were interested in buying them so it was something we felt we had to do. This is a family business, the family has been brought up on the rides we have there and the family are young enough to carry on that business."

Gayna was well to the fore in 2011 when the family revealed their plans for North Pier and how they were going to tackle the huge challenge of maintaining the listed Victorian structure standing out in the corrosive environment of the Irish Sea.

She was also to the fore when stall holders and traders objected to plans for a food and drink festival on the Prom over the crucial August Bank Holiday weekend in 2014. She was the then owner of the Blackpool Fish Factory chippy in the pyramid building.

The festival was eventually hit by bad weather but she said: “We are here all year round, paying huge rates to the council, and then on the busiest weekend of the year, the council decides to ship in a load of other businesses selling food and drink."

Now Gayna is the owner of the pyramid building where her chippy stands, along with the former Pump and Truncheon pub, now called the Number 13 Bonny Street pub.