A smashing visit

One very costly night’s stay on the Ravenglass Club site in July is more than enough for me. First was the cost (as a non-member) of £49.15; one night for parking the four wheels of my motorhome, two people and a dog. Fully self-contained, we used no facilities other than minimal hook-up for electricity to charge our batteries, water and waste.

But that’s not the painful bit… Entry and parking at Ravenglass is through a tight wooded entrance turning off a narrow and wooded road. You park outside the warden’s hut to book in and pay.

I’d not moved in far enough forward to allow a resident’s car to get into the park. The warden told me to move forward and that, “I’ll safely see you back, and then onto your pitch.”

I drove forward and then reversed with his arms gesturing me back and him enjoying the sound of my reversing alarm playing a folk-song tune, with me confidently reversing into heavy black shadows and sunlight filling both wing mirrors. Bang! Straight into the gate post. I used every utterly foul word I could think of to myself, but kept calm and composed for the warden (he was feeling bad enough anyway).

We returned home to find the damaged rear panel cost just over £650 including VAT. The small paintwork retouch and make good in matching aluminium silver paint comes to about £550, so much better than I had first feared.

Now came the second shock, the insurance minefield. The first £250 excess was paid by me, then the premium increases £200pa and, should you be with a ‘wrong un’, you’ll not get cover over 80 years old (in two years’ time for me). This is going to cost me a tidy sum whichever way I turn.

I tried a reasonable tack by approaching the Club to ask to share costs with it, to save a claim on my insurance company. It passed my claim directly to its insurance company, which said no!

At the very outset, I may have even settled for the return of my £49.15 pitch fee… but nothing. I know that my hands were on the steering wheel, but if you can’t rely on the site ‘landlord’, the warden, the voice of authority and control over the site, of its rules and safe running, who can we trust and rely on?

The panel may take six to 12 weeks to arrive, I was told. It’s been eight weeks already and we still wait.

Don Briggs