CARAVAN OWNERS FACING EVICTION
FOR 83-year-old Mo Neale, it is no understatement to say that her caravan means everything. Now living alone since the death of her husband, the grandmother’s time at Pendine Sands Holiday Park can sometimes be the only time she is surrounded by family and friends.
But now the pensioner is one of more than a dozen caravan owners facing eviction from the popular site due to what has been described as an overlooked rule. Mo, a grandmother-of-15 from Neyland, said: “I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else. I wanted to have company in my old age and that’s made a lot of difference to my life. I spend most of my time there. This has given me a new lease of life – instead of sitting here waiting for God I’m out having fun.”
After first buying a caravan on the Carmarthen Bay site in 2012, Mo downsized her house to buy her £20,000 holiday home. At the time, she claims she was told she could keep the caravan on the site past the fixed tenure agreement as long as her caravan was kept in good condition.
But in July, 16 owners at the site received a letter saying they had until December 31 to upgrade their caravan, sell it back to the Parkdean Resorts site or take their property off the site.
Yesterday, more than 30 caravan owners and families gathered at the West Wales site to protest.
Holding banners sporting slogans like “Parkdean Resorts, don’t steal our futures” and chanting “Pendine Sands, wash your hands”, they want to raise
awareness of their situation.
A spokesman for Parkdean Resorts said: “Pendine Sands is a highly popular resort with excellent facilities and delivers fantastic experiences for shortstay holidaymakers and those who choose to enter into a longer-term holiday home leasing contract known as a pitch licence agreement.
“The process and contract have many similar characteristics to those of popular car leasing or payment agreements. Each contract is legally binding and an annual fee is paid per year.
“The contracts are aligned to the National Caravan Council Code of Practice, crystal clear and there is no ‘small print’ to avoid any misunderstanding. As is common with any licence, rental or leasing contract, the term is defined and in the case of holiday parks commonly fixed for 10 or 15-year periods.
“The majority of those affected have made contact with us. More than half have taken out a new agreement or are in negotiation but a very small minority have gone directly to the media with a complaint and their allegation of breach of contract has no foundation in law. The situation is straightforward – we have a long-term legal contract with those with complaint and we would like to know how they wish to proceed as per their contractual agreements.”