Furry Friends Farm at Cleethorpes' Pleasure Island will be home to pygmy goats, Shetland ponies, pigs, sheep, cows, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs

GET your wellies at the ready!

The £500,000 petting farm and tractor ride at Pleasure Island, Cleethorpes, is getting ready to open to the public, on Friday, March 29.

PET PLANS: Pleasure Island theme park general manager Neil Ireland and Georgia Gough, office supervisor, show off the plans for the site's new Furry Friends Farm and tractor ride. Picture: Rick Byrne
WATCH THIS SPACE: Pleasure Island owner Melanie Wood says the petting farm will be a great addition.

Plans have been finalised and now it is "full steam ahead" for the next six weeks to build Furry Friends Farm.

The exciting new attraction at the theme park – which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in May – will bring the cute, cuddly and the clucky to Cleethorpes.

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The animals preparing to move into the five acre plot include: pygmy goats, Shetland ponies, pigs, sheep, cows, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs.

Owner Melanie Wood said: "Plans are going really well, we have appointed our main contractors, the work has started and the designs are completed. Over the next six weeks it will be full steam ahead.

"We hope it will combine fun and education, which can be hard, but if you get it right it can work really well. The petting farm will appeal to a different, younger audience.

"We have discussed doing this over the years, it has been on and off and then on again. Sometimes you have to say, 'right, let's get on with it'. We have made some difficult decisions but I am 100 per cent sure this is the right thing to do."

The farm also includes a tractor ride, so visitors can view the animals from afar or for those who want to get up close and personal, there will be feeding and petting sessions.

These will be supervised by two animal behaviour experts, who will be employed full-time at the park.

For animal-lover Melanie, the petting zoo is a welcome challenge.

She added: "I was brought up with animals at Flamingo Land and then I married a farmer. Animals are very much a part of my life."

Entry to the farm is included in the main theme park ticket price of £18.50.