We have been using this site for many years, and until this year it has been superb, with excellent, friendly and hard working wardens, always maintained to a very high standard and very well managed. This year has been challenging due to covid restrictions, but the site is going downhill fast! Checking in is not permitted until 1pm, however, previous wardens would check you in earlier and let you wait until mowing of vacated pitches was complete, so we often got in ahead of schedule, which helped to keep queueing in the access road to a minimum, even when 50 or more arrivals were due on the day. The new wardens are not flexible on this, and with check in apparently slowed by covid restrictions (though I can't see why that should be the case) there is a queue down the single lane access road every day, preventing you from leaving the site, and more worryingly, preventing access for emergency vehicles. I spoke to a resident of the lane and they said they hadn't see anything like it in 25 years, not good for relations. With a little common sense, arrivals could be checked in early and allowed in. Furthermore, instead of using one reception door as "in" and the other as "out", they could use both doors as "in/out", and set up two booking in stations whilst still maintaining social distancing. The wardens don't do any gardening and the grass is left long, like a farmer's field, so when it rains you get wet shoes up to your ankles. There is mud where ground sheets have been left in place for long periods. There is a real problem with speeding on site, and I fear that someone will get hurt before too long. Dogs are also a problem, with owners allowing them to foul your pitch. They may pick up, but if it is a total collapse they leave residue, perfect for children to touch when playing, not good. Last year Perry and his team coped admirably even when the site was full, and the place was really lovely and well managed, whereas this year it is poor. The new wardens become very defensive if anyone complains about anything, and blame the fact that there are only six of them, two short of the usual at this time of year. However, though there are 4 toilet blocks open, there are only about 1/4 of the toilet facilities open, they do minimal mowing and no gardening so you'd think they could cope. Apparently the club is trying to recruit more, though the package on offer (a free pitch and electricity) is not particularly attractive. The club has been pretty much full on our 3 visits this year, so is generating a good income, so perhaps it is time to improve the incentives! It is time to get a hold on this!!
Comment from the Club:
Thank you for your review. We would like to advise that the arrival time at Incleboro has been 1pm for the last 8 years and is set at this time for the very reason you state - this is a single track lane and members need to leave site for either days out or be off site before the departure time of 12. By arriving early it puts the site managers in an impossible position as other members will have arranged the journey time to arrive after 1.00 many park up beforehand to ensure this is the case, and then are upset when site managers let members on early and have first choice of the pitches, despite them abiding by our arrival time.
We have also seen a 25% increase in occupancy at Incleboro since we opened in April, which will explain the increased traffic down the lane, the site team work hard to manage this on a daily basis in order to reduce the impact on the local residents.
Unfortunately due to the restriction we can only accommodate 1 person in any office, this is to keep all members and staff safe and once the restrictions are lifted then we will follow the government guidance.
As for the grass, it should be 2.5- 3 inches in order to reduce stones being flicked up and either striking someone or damaging outfits, it also wears better in order to reduce the muddy areas from ground sheets, which we have seen earlier this year due to the increased demand of the site.
Speeding and dogs are all of our responsibility to ensure that everyone is safe on site - additional speed humps can and will be put in if required.
The toilet blocks are half open due to the restrictions in place, however, there is additional cleaning that takes place around the site and at service points, again to keep everyone safe.
Unfortunately, the site is running on 25% less staff at the moment and a new couple is due to start this week, not sure where the info re package is from but this is incorrect.
The site teams across the network are working extremely hard to manage everyone's expectations, and we are sorry that you were not clearly met on this visit but hope that this explanation will give you a better understanding of the challenges we are all facing at the moment.
