Exceeding 5 vans

Not something that I have encountered although I have probably used no more than a dozen CLs in the last 20 years.

I won't count the 6th van on a nice site that we stayed on as the owner was away on holiday and his brother and family were pitched up well away from the pitches, down the side of one of the buildings on a car park area and was minding the shop so to speak.

I'd report the OP's findings to the club. Sites that flout their exemption certification actually put the whole exemption system in jeopardy. The club could end up losing the right to issue certificates which would close all CLs at a stroke. We'd all be the losers then.

If site owners wish to take more than 5 vans, they are perfectly free to seek planning permission for them. All it takes is a bit of effort and money but they find it easier to break the law and put every site and the club at risk.

If there's room for all then it doesn't bother me in the slightest .... 

Not even in view of the possible  ramifications? Oh well 🤷‍♂️

Cherokee, If instead he had said "I'm terribly sorry, but I made a mistake and overbooked, I'm afraid you can't come in, you must go away and find somewhere else", he would have been keeping to the rules. Would you have preferred that?

It sounds as if it may not be a one off at this CL and is running a small? caravan site without the responsibilitie of having to apply to his LA for the licence to make it legal? or would not get it

How many pitches are there,over the 2x5 that should be? have they all got EHU

In the past I have reported a site for overcrowding and that was prompted by the way the owner treated a young family who had a confirmed booking.
The site we were on a couple of weeks ago had 6 vans on it.  I didn’t and won’t report the owners as they are an elderly couple without email, so everything is done by phone so I think some confusion has set in.  Further I don’t think money is the driving force.  Anyway after nearly 4 months of lockdown I had better things to do with my time

We stayed on a CL in Suffolk last year which had 6 grass pitches with EHU and  4HS with EHU pitches that are for winter use only? so the owner stated , the grass pitches are only for summer use 

Ps and a toilet and shower for site users only that we took one look at   and used the C/van

Not sure if it is still the same after our report

ps  we only used it as we had tickets for a concert in the area and did not want to drive home about 60 miles in the dark

We have stayed on a cpuple of CLs where there have been more than 5 units, but the vast majority have stuck to the rules.. Of course, it's impossible to know whether that's a regular occurrence unless one returns to the same site frequently. On one there was a 6th van which seemed to be a permanent fixture but could, of course, simply have been stored on the site. It was not connected to water or EHU and no one used it while we were there. On another there appeared to be 2 separate pitching areas, which I believe is allowed;  one had 4 units, the other 3 and there was plenty of space. Although the toilet/showers were shared there was never a queue.

On the whole,,over the years, we have been more than happy with the CLs we've used and, as I say, the vast majority appear to play by the rules.  

Over the years we have stayed on many CLs, the vast majority of which have had only five units at a time. The very few that have exceeded five units, (with one notable exception),  have, in my opinion, plenty of room for the extra unit or even two. 

There is a CL close to the ferry on the south coast that occasionally has more than five units but the problem here is that some arrive very late at night and are gone very early next morning to catch a ferry. The CL is providing a service to many members and prevents units from just being parked up in lay-bys for several hours close to the ferries.

Another CL that we went to in Dorset allows departing units to stay until evening if they wish to. This does cause a problem for incoming visitors if the pitches are all taken. This must happen fairly regularly as the owner has EHU cable splitters so that two units can be run from the one EHU outlet. Not a situation that I liked having driven 200+ miles to be told that I would have to wait until the other unit left in the evening before I could properly site the caravan and put up the awning.

All in all I think the system is generally running OK. For the vast majority of CLs I wouldn't 'shop' them if they exceeded the five units as they are usually CLs that I have carefully chosen for their location, access and facilities. I don't consciously chose them "because they will only have five units".  I wouldn't want them being closed and me not being able to re-visit. I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face! If it was a CL that I liked and there were more than five units it wouldn't stop me going back.

In view of the ever increasing number of caravans and motorhomes being used we desperately need more pitches available nationally. Allowing CLs to have one or two more units if space allowed would be an easy way to help alleviate the problem without having to open new CLs. It would also give the owners a little bit more income with not much more outlay, something that is much needed in rural communities