Another Site Lost - Northbrook Farm

Yes been on the cards now for years rolling yearly lease renewal with the council who obviously have now decided more money from council tax from housing than a peppercorn rent from a camp site ! Another loss to the club 

And I would guess that there are a coupled others set to go the same way in the not too distant future.

What couple would they be then nth?

JK

Barnyard Downs has been on the cards to go for a while, possibly Slinfold too.

Doesn't help that it was one of the "Value" sites as well. I am sure the Club had put in planning permission to create an all year round site with serviced pitches but no toilet block, at least that was what the then warden indicated. It seemed that half the site would be lost to housing. At the time it seemed the local council were on board except they didn't like the expansion of the storage facility for some reason. Shame, nice site and handy for the bus.

David

It seems to be those "value" sites that are most likely to be the ones to be lost/closed by the club. There soon won't be any of them left the way it is going.

So, "value" sites keeps getting mentioned. My question is who are they valuable to? If they are that valuable and at £20 per night they are good value in my opinion then why does nobody use them?

JK

Is it a fact that these sites are little used?

IMO they will be attractive to those on a tighter budget, who use  CLs  frequently, who do not mind frequent toilet emptying and fetching/disposing of water, and who have a van with a decent shower space.

Personally, we like them and have used a few over the years.....Engelthwaite.....Altnahara......High Onn (twice).......Cadeside......if they are where we want to be.  We do however go mainly for hard standings, so not so keen if there are only grass pitches.  

We did book Stamford once, but as we would arrive on a Friday, in July, and likely be left with a grass pitch, we changed to a nearby CL with serviced hard standings instead.

I would think couples would be more likely to use the no facility sites rather than families, purely due to the fetching and disposing of larger amounts of water, so having some serviced pitches as at Engelthwaite could  boost use.

Prices on some CLs have risen a lot lately, and more seem to be moving "up-market", so these "value" sites can be better value, though not as good value as previously.

However, I think the new booking system, the deposits, and the longer cancellation period will not have helped the situation.

JK

I am not sure that is correct. When we stayed at Northbrook Farm I would say it was quite well used. Had it survived to be upgraded it would have been even more popular. Cadeside, albeit a very small site, was full for the three nights we stayed there last year. We used to like Mildenhall and despite it being a more "rustic" experience even that seemed popular. I don't think these sites are closing because they are not popular, High Onn might be an exception, but it's more to do with the owners of the lease who seem unwilling to enter into a longer term arrangement which would make investment more attractive. I imagine in some cases the lease holders get a better offer?

David

Likewise, both Stover and Marazion were usually very busy when we visited. We had Hobson's choice of 1 pitch last time we went to Marazion.

Cadeside tends to be, by necessity, a book early site as with only 16 pitches and being a handy overnight stop close to the M5, it is very popular.

The non-fac sites aren't so popular with families so may not be so lucrative to CAMC. That's my thinking.