Lovely Site - Terrible Marshalls
We have only recently bought a caravan so are relatively new to the experience. We have joined and visited quite a few sites with this club but I must say this was the worst so far. It is a shame as the site is unusual with the steam train going by BUT the marshall's just spoiled the weekend for us. We arrived at the site a few weeks ago when the weather was not the best. Our friends in a motorhome joined us for the weekend. All went well the first evening, however, on Saturday there was a heavy rainfall which completely flooded the pitch our friends were on for 5+ hours. The pitch was lower than the surrounding grass, hence, the water remained in the pitch and damaged chairs/equipment that they had on the pitch. Granted the site cannot help the weather but the pitch needs to be brought higher than the ground surrounding it!! My friends complained to the marshall's, who showed no interest until another couple of friends arrived to join us for tea. These friends are not use to the rules on any caravan site since they have no caravan of their own. Unfortunately, they went the wrong way around the site!!! Due to the panic we were already experiencing, when they joined us at the pitch, I asked them to park next to our caravan whilst we helped our other friends who were struggling to remove the water from the pitch. This was only going to be for a short while whilst we got sorted. However, the marshall then decided to come out and rant about H & S, driving the wrong way and parking next to the caravan. You have to picture this - we were concerned about our other friends saving their property and scooping the water way - and these marshalls were more concerned about someone driving the wrong way (for which he apologised for, by the way) and taking pictures. I also had the lady marshall pointing her fingers in my face, when speaking to me which is very rude. I am a health and safety manager myself, for a construction company, so understand H & S is very important, but our friends had been driving only 2-5 miles per hour around site, so H & S needed to be put to into perspective in this matter and other matters were more important at the time. They eventually asked us to move the motorhome to another pitch nearby, but this will not solve the issue for other caravaners in the future. Overall, the experience was terrible, the marshalls were very rude and not helpful at all. It is a shame as we live only 10 miles away and would have like to visit the site again, but until we hear that these marshalls no longer work at this site, we will not be visiting again. Our friends have complained but have not had a response as yet. I just felt I needed to let people know about these unhelpful/rude marshall's. We had heard similar reviews from other caravaners who have visited this site, but thought, no it can't be that back - But how wrong we were!!!
Comment from the Club:
We are so sorry that your friends pitch was flooded and fully sympathise with how upsetting this must have been for them. Our site staff have been in touch as they want to clarify the situation and clear up any confusion. The flooding started when we had approximately 5" rain in 15 minutes. We fully appreciate how distressing the situation was but have to let people know if they are speeding or going the wrong way on the one way system as we have children on bicycles on the site and we need to ensure everyone is safe. This is of the utmost importance regardless of the situation and as such the wardens will always advise if they witness anyone not abiding by these site rules for the safety of all on site. With regards to the flooding, our site warden did his utmost to help and could fully empathise as they were also affected by the flooding on their pitch. The site staff helped move items out of the awning, helped with taking the canopy down and moved the members affected to another pitch on higher ground and we hope that this helped to relieve some of the stress of the situation. They have also raised this as a member incident report to the Regional Manager and please be assured the wardens will always do their utmost to help and asset wherever they can.