Cranfield Caravan Park Residents’ Association, the caravan owners’ organisation formed to fight for improved consumer rights legislation in N.I., recently hosted a public meeting in Tandragee Golf Club.

Caravanners’ from all over N.I. were welcomed by the CCPRA Vice-Chairman Norman McBride who invited South Down UUP MLA John McCallister and his assistant Annette Holden to discuss their plans to introduce legislation as a Private Members' Bill, to the N.I. Assembly, which will provide improved legal protection for persons who own caravans and mobile homes.

John McCallister in his address thanked the CCPRA for the invitation to meet and discuss the issues with caravan owners and also congratulated the CCPRA on its’ hard work not only on behalf of Cranfield caravan owners but also throughout Northern Ireland.

"The law on caravans has not been updated in NI since 1963, in which no provisions were set aside for caravan owners and permanent residents in caravans. Unlike mainland UK where the Mobile Homes Act 1983 extended rights throughout the rest of the UK, but it excludes N.I." said Mr. McCallister.

"At present I have completed a consultation process which informed interested parties of the proposed legislation. This Bill will redefine the definition of caravan to include mobile homes and park homes and afford protection to owners who rent their pitch from a caravan park operator." Mr. McCallister affirmed.

After a lively question and answer session with many caravan owners describing potential and current difficulties including instances were caravanners’ have to purchase most of their goods and services through the site owner and in another instance caravanners forced to upgrade their caravans after a certain time, or leave the site, and can only sell the caravan back to the owner and not at a competitive rate, were very contentious issues that would require further research, advice and debate.

Caravan owners also expressed their thanks to Mr. McCallister for his hard work and support and urged him to continue with the fight for fair rights for Caravan Owners. They also committed to spread the word amongst fellow caravanners’ to lobby their MLA’s on these important issues and to demonstrate that there is a massive ground swell of support for new legislation.

Danny Kennedy UUP MLA and fellow caravanner was also on hand to discuss issues to be addressed by Newry and Mourne District Council in relation to wooden boxes beside caravans. Confusion amongst caravanners stemmed from the differences between each District Council in the interpretation of the maximum permitted size and timescale for implementing the new regulations. Newry and Mourne District Council have extended the deadline for the removal of all wooden boxes to the end of the 2009 season.

CCPRA Vice-Chairman Norman McBride thanked John McCallister, Annette Holden and Danny Kennedy for attending and concluded the meeting stating “For generations caravan owners’ in N.I. have been subjected to grossly unfair practices by the holiday caravan park industry which has imposed tremendous hardship on families. There has never been a better time than now to significantly level the playing field with the introduction of McCallister’s private members bill and I strongly commend that everyone spreads the word of the CCPRA, our website, John McCallister’s website and motivate all caravanners behind this initiative.” Key issues can be viewed in documents or www.johnmccallister.org

Furthermore Norman announced that membership of the CCPRA was now available to Caravan owners who do not have a caravan pitch at Cranfield Caravan Park. All caravanners’ are now welcome to join as ‘Associate members’ and receive our email Newsletters and advice on how to form their own residents associations.