Caravan Club Inspections of CLs

A theme runs across various discussions of a lack of CL inspections by the Caravan Club – here is a CL Owner’s perspective regarding CL inspections.

Our local Caravan Club Site Inspector is a volunteer who does CL inspections in his spare time.  He tends to visit our CL at weekends, about once a year.  He always arrives unannounced, usually very early in the morning and generally visits several CLs on the same day.  Sometimes we are out when he visits and he leaves a business card in our letterbox.  Every few years, we get a visit from the Field Officer (a more senior appointment) instead of the Site Inspector – presumably so that he too gets to know all of the CL Owners in his patch.

The inspections are usually early in the morning, well before normal departure time; presumably because that is a good time to look for CLs that over-book.   We have nothing to fear as the site is kept tidy and we strictly apply the rules regarding:

• ‘5-vans’,
• ‘recreational use only’,
• ‘no unoccupied vans’,
• ‘28-day maximum stay’,
• in-date insurance and electrical safety certificate. 

In addition, our Booking Diary, issued each year by the Caravan Club, shows contact details and membership numbers of all our guests.

The Site Inspector is open and helpful.  He sees many more CLs than we do, and on the occasions when we have seen him, we like to pick his brains as to how we might make further improvements.  I have asked him about his work in the past and in addition to his ‘routine’ annual visits; he does visit CLs more often if there has been a complaint.  He doesn’t enjoy dealing with complaints, but accepts that as part of his volunteer role.  Having looked-after his area for several years, in the manner of an old-fashioned village Bobby, he knows which CLs are ‘straight’ and which he has to keep a closer eye on.  In many cases a face-to-face and/or written warning is sufficient, rather than instantly closing the CL.

We always invite him to talk to our guests, and he does so if they are up and about, but has said in the past that he doesn’t want to make himself unpopular with Club members by waking them up at 8am on a Sunday morning.  I daresay that if he saw a caravan that did not fit the CL stereotype, such as one that appeared to be a tradesman’s caravan, he might knock on the door to ask for a membership card.

From the comments in various discussions, it might be an idea for Site Inspectors and Field Officers to leave business cards tucked under guests’ windscreen wipers so that Club members have a warm feeling that the Club is active in its inspections.  This is would probably be preferable to an early morning knock.

Ian Kelly

www.BirchHill.co.uk

Birch Hill Farm - an award-winning Caravan Club CL in the beautiful lake-lands of Shropshire - exclusively for members of the Caravan Club