Welcome to the Cranfield Caravan Park Residents’ Association website.

At a meeting of caravan owners held on 6^th January 2008 it was proposed to form a residents association and open dialogue with the management of Cranfield Caravan Park.

Many residents who attended the Association's inaugural meeting were completely unaware of the level of charges to be imposed after the upgrading of Cranfield Caravan Park had been completed; obtaining information through rumour, second hand conversations and in some cases wild speculation which has caused so  much damage to the relationship between the caravan owners and park proprietors.

The mood of the meeting was of anger and bitter frustration at the information vacuum from the management with feelings running very high, that as loyal customers of Cranfield Caravan Park that they were not valued and the proposed 34% increase in the fees for non-upgraded sites and 54% increase in fees for fully enhanced sites, in one year, was completely unreasonable.

The CCPRA currently has 114 members and is a legally constituted organisation with the following elected office bearers:

The Officers, Committee and members of Cranfield Caravan Park Residents Association would like to convey to Jim, Sandra and Stephen Chestnutt, proprietors of Cranfield Caravan Park, that the CCPRA has been formed with no malicious intent towards the Chestnutt family to whom we value and respect, nor do we wish to be the source of discontent, but as a vehicle to improve the channels of communication between the Caravan Owners and Proprietors of Cranfield Caravan Park.

Before commencing this process we note that history has shown a fair degree of hostility by some park managers when confronted by the possibility of a Residents’ Association on their park.

Regrettably, it has long been the nature of caravan park operators to tend to ‘shoot the messenger’ rather than ‘improve the message’.

On a well-run park that genuinely operates with the well being of its owners in mind, it is clearly advantageous to have the sort of two-way healthy dialogue that a properly run owners’ association can encourage.

Please be assured that successful Associations have been established in the face of such hostility and be confident knowing that, there are absolutely no legal grounds for preventing the setting up of a properly constituted Association and therefore, no legally enforceable sanctions which can be implemented by private holiday park operators whose caravan owning residents are involved in so doing.

With regret we must report that to date the Management of Cranfield Caravan Park does not recognise Cranfield Caravan Park Residents’ Association and have refused to meet with our representatives.

 Association Aims  

·         Advice on Holiday Park matters

·         To engage positively, through respectful dialogue, to resolve difficulties and matters of mutual interest between Association members and management.

·         Specialist advice to members

·         Collective campaigning

·         Lobby political representatives for consumer protection for caravan owners on Private Holiday Sites

·         Social activities

·         Not for individual complaints

CARAVAN OWNERS ON PRIVATE HOLIDAY SITES IN NORTHERN IRELAND

In September 1999, after some 20 years of campaigning by the various bodies, a Code of Practice was introduced throughout the United Kingdom. This Code was expected to provide the same level of consumer protection for Northern Ireland caravanners as had existed for those on the mainland.

In 2002 the Consumer Council noted that caravanners in Northern Ireland still lacked basic rights and new legislation was needed. The C.D.P. was not sufficient to safeguard people’s rights and was not being honoured in many cases.

There are at least 15,000 owners of static caravans in Northern Ireland and the number continues to grow.

Therefore we continued to have no specific legislation to safeguard consumer rights in this industry.

It is the long term aim of the Association to fully support and lobby for new legislation to be enacted to bring those rights to caravanners on private Holiday Sites in Northern Ireland and to address this important shortcoming and ensure that rights in other parts of UK are applied to Northern Ireland.

USEFUL ALLIES

• Local consumer protection

   

• Trading Standards officers

   

• Office of Fair Trading

   

• Office of Fair Trading  Guidance on Unfair Terms in Holiday Caravan Agreements

   

• Citizens Advice

   

• National Association of Caravan Owners (Consider corporate membership)

   

• Human Rights Act 1998

   

• Park Homes Magazine Legal expert

   

• Model Rules for Siting and Selling of caravans

   

• Local Council Members, MLA’s and MP’s.

   

• Park Operator’s own park rules and agreements

   

To contact us please email us at

cranfield_cpra@yahoo.co.uk

or go to the enquiry section.