by Damien Sharkov
Caravan park bosses have come under fire after removing family tributes, left at the site where a holidaymaker lost her life last summer.
Charlotte Blackman was engulfed in a landslide, while camping along the Dorset seaside in July, last year.
The 22 year-old’s family decided to mark the anniversary of her passing by leaving flowers and a teddy bear on a memorial bench in the Freshwater Beach Holiday Park, where Charlotte was staying when the incident occurred.
Freshwater Beach bosses have since cleared the bench, removing tributes and asking the family to refrain from ” leaving things” on the site in the future.
Charlotte’s mother has branded their actions “insensitive” and “heartless”.
Freshwater’s general manager, Scott Condliffe, however stands by the decision, claiming the site was “becoming a shrine”, which was “not appropriate” for a holiday park.
He further stressed the fact that the accident had not happened on Freshwater’s premises. Condliffe invited the family to come back and visit the site and welcomed the idea of a memorial bench in the park.
“We left the flowers in place for several weeks afterwards,” he told the Derby Telegraph. “Only when it became very untidy we felt we had to do something.”
Freshwater Beach officials maintain they have been very understanding of the Blackman family’s tragedy, however reiterated “this is a business, not a graveyard”.
