Advice to a Prospective CL Owner

I've been giving a lot of thought to what I might say to someone thinking now about starting a CL from scratch.

It is definitely a labour of love and there are more profitable ways to use our land, but purely from a financial point of view, a landowner has to consider 'return on investment'.

CLs were created under a 1960 Act of Parliament to make it easier for land-owners to use spare pieces of land without going through a lengthy and costly Planning Permission process, provided that they were limited to just 5 caravans or motorhomes.

Times have moved-on and the expectations of guests have increased: electric hook-ups have become the norm, Wi-Fi is in demand, motorhomes need hard-standings, we get asked for toilets & showers, and electric vehicle charging will be the next hurdle.

The 'Catch 22' for new CL Owners is that motorhomes are on the increase compared to caravans, and require level hard-standings – not only are they more costly to install, hard-standings almost certainly require planning permission.

If landowners need planning permission to install hard-standings (and/or toilets / showers); they might as well skip the 5-van concept and apply to have a larger commercial site right from the start. If they have enough land and time; the economy of scale would make that more financially viable.

I cannot see the 5-van limit changing as it is part of a lengthy piece of law that affects commercial touring sites, static caravan sites and rallies.  The caravan industry has a whole has too much to lose by starting to unravel this law.

If you value CLs: please use them, be grateful for they provide and do not make too many demands on land-owners to add extra facilities that require planning permission.  The 5-van limit was put there as a concession to make things easier for land-owners, not more difficult.

Ian Kelly

01691 622951
Holiday@BirchHill.co.uk

Birch Hill, The Cross, Ellesmere, Shropshire, SY12 0LP
www.BirchHill.co.uk

Birch Hill Farm – relax at our award-winning hideaway in the beautiful lake-lands of Shropshire - exclusively for members of the Caravan and Motorhome Club