By William Coleman
Members of the Rookley Country Park on the Isle of Wight are heading toward some hard times. They face the prospect of potentially losing their holiday homes following a park takeover.
As you can all imagine the loss of your holiday home and or its location is a very big blow. The residents are plot owners of Rookley Country Park could have a joint loss of an estimated £1.57 million. This was reported last month and will affect around 70 distraught residents who were mortified to discover that they are being forced to leave to park and make way for the total rejuvenation of the site. Although it is good that site has been bought and will be invested in it still leaves a lot of current members in a very bad spot.
The new development of the site will see a lot of new additions brought in. There will be new lodges positioned around the lake, upgraded entertainment and the pool area will be getting an upgrade too. On Top of that there should be new caravan hires made available. All of this will be brought in at the cost of the current caravan owners using the park, they have to move to make the land free for development.
The main fear is that the current owners will not find another suitable place to store homes now they are having to leave Rookley Country Park. Rookley Country Park did issue a sincere apology regarding the matter.
Following the news around 30 owners met the Chequers pub to speak with the campaigner and caravan owner, Paul St John Martin, regarding the move and how it could financially impact those being forced to move from the site.
Mr. St John Martin revealed that the combined cost that the owners will be out of pocket would be around the £1.5m when they lose the vans.
The Island MP Bob Seeley has vowed to help in this situation to protect the rights of the current caravan owners. Mr Seely has expressed great sympathy for the nightmare that the residents find themselves in.
He has said that he will be writing to the new owners company, a company based in the USA, as well as the the Citizens’ Advice in regards to some form of compensation due to the losses the residents could suffer.
Mr Seely added he would also be looking into lobbying Parliament about the issues raised.
Rookley Park said: “Unfortunately, the extent of the work required is such some owners will have to move their holiday homes elsewhere.”.
I am all for developing new parks and sites around the UK but this seems like a lot of people’s lives are having to change, not for the better, to make way for these upgrades.
