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Reviewed on 04/08/2023 09:50
The CL offers water, drainage, EHU and satellite television connection and the welcome by Sarah was great. As has already been mentioned elsewhere, the site is surrounded by trees. Unfortunately we were allocated pitch 1 which is also overhung by large trees. This made the pitch quite dark and gloomy, relatively cold and, when it rained there was a constant drip for several hours from the trees. This seemed to happen, invariably, during the night making sleep difficult. The pitch is also sloping unlike others on the site. What disappointed me was that the pitch next to us, which was vacant when we arrived, was sunny for most of the day and I would have liked to have been allocated that one, especially as we had booked in November last year for a 7 night stay. As it turned out, during the week there were four different outfits on that pitch, with none staying more than three nights. It would appear that we were relegated to the worst pitch because, according to one lady, “we told Sarah we wanted a sunny pitch because we have a solar panel on the roof”. So, if you have a booking, just hope that you are not on pitch 1.
Comment from the Club:
Many thanks for your 4 star review. The CL Owner has been in touch as they are sorry you weren’t entirely happy with your pitch and they would like to address some of the points you raised.
Firstly, they would like to address your disappointment that you could not occupy the neighbouring pitch. They allocate pitches according to the date the booking was made and the number of nights booked. In this case, not only was the neighbouring pitch booked before you made your booking, the guests had specifically requested that pitch. Some of their repeat guests reserve their favourite pitch a year or more in advance.
In the eight years the CL owners have been running the site they have acquired a number of repeat guests who specifically request pitch number 1 over any of the other pitches. It is also one of the the largest on the site so they are sorry to hear you were not happy with the allocation.
As you mention pitch 1 is the least level on the site. This is deliberate to avoid damaging tree roots. The slope can be an issue for large motorhomes and the CL Owners have ramps if people require them. The slope is less of a problem for caravans, being easier to level. They also have a number of wooden levelling blocks if people need them and recommend parking your van perpendicular to the slope to simplify levelling.
As you stated in your review, the CL website makes it clear that the site is surrounded by trees and all of the pitches will be shaded at some point in the day. They believe that the trees give the site it’s character. However, some years have passed since the trees were last pruned so they are sorry that dripping from trees interrupted your sleep. They will address this as soon as the leaves drop this autumn and thank you for bringing this to their attention.
They do hope that you will return in the future and advise that as they are a very popular site please book as early as possible if you want to reserve a specific pitch.
Doric
Reviewed on 23/04/2023 10:16
Beware: the current cost of a pitch is £25, not £22, and includes the use of up to 20kWh electricity a night. If you go over this amount you will be charged £0.60 per kWh increasing to £1.05 per kWh after 31st March. If the weather is cold, you may well be caught out by this, as we and our friends were, which makes staying at this site very expensive.
Response from the CL:
I’m sorry to hear that you consider our site fees to be unreasonable. I’d like to address some of the points you have raised. The price stated on the caravan club site states prices from £22 per night. At the beginning of April our pitch price, without electricity, will be from £18 per night.
Rising energy costs have required us and most other touring sites to install electricity meters on all our electrical hookups. Our electrical costs rise from 50p per kWh to 88p per kWh at the beginning of April before dropping to 45p per kWh in October 2023. We have to add VAT to this as it is included in pitch fee.
We recently had a guest who managed to use a staggering 38 units of power within a 24 hour period. Even with the government discount, which comes to an end at the end of March 2023, this guest cost us £22.80 in power alone. To this we have to add our fixed costs of £3 per night for waste disposal, broadband, insurance etc. Had we not asked this guest to pay for their excessive power use, this guest would have cost us 80p for the privilege of staying for the night.
The huge increase in energy prices is affecting caravan and motorhome sites disproportionately as the energy cost makes up a significant portion of the nightly fee compared to hotels, B&Bs or holiday cottages. CLs are businesses. They require a lot of effort to administer and maintain. If they don’t make any money they will close and the members of the caravan and motorhome club will lose a valuable resource.
We have no say over the cost of energy and no control over the amount of energy guests use. We recommend users of caravans and motorhomes to always turn off appliances, especially water heaters and space heaters when they are not required, especially when guests have vacated their vans. This is good for your wallet and good for the planet. You might also consider heating your van using gas.
I hope that this is a satisfactory explanation. Thank you for staying with us in the past, we do hope to see you again in the future!
