CL's

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all.
a question for all you regular CL users what would you do when your quiet little 1/4acre back garden C/L gets overcroweded with 8 vans !!!!!
when we rang them wednesday to confirm we were on our way (booked by phone last month) the owner said fine we have one pitch left for you,, it's next to the back gate, we arrived just after 5pm, 4 hard standings with vans on them all occupied and one grass pitch near the gate, we got set up and settled down to our tea, then another van arrived about 7pm and set up in the middle of the grass,
friday another one arrived and set up beside the other one in the middle obviously friends as they shared one EHU that made 7 vans on site thinking this was out of order considering the CL is basically in a back garden with vans positioned between the apple trees and the garden pond I went to confront the owner over this only to find out he had gone away on holiday for a week.
this afternoon sunday another one turned up and pitched in between us and the van next to us on the h/standing the vans are so close you cant get a car between them.
I'm very annoyed at the mo its only the second CL we have been on and are thinking of moving in the morning, and sod the rest of the week "8 vans in one back garden is no joke "
so what would you do??
and does this happen often on CL's,
colin

 

[dougie201]

Hi Colin-yorkshire
I have been on a few CL sites and must admit never had this problem. The owners of these sites can get into trouble from the club they are CLs for, as they should only have a max of 5 on site.
I would report the site you stayed on.

Dougie....

 

[erica11]

Hi Colin, We,ve stayed on a few Cl,s in the past and this does happen i,m afraid. If it,s only 1 extra van, then not bad but 8 is pushing it. Also depends on the size of the site, if it,s a small cl it can be overcrowded to say the least. Would be interested to know what area this cl was in please. I know u cant name it but if we know the area we could perhaps avoid it.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi, can't really say too much on here forum rules and all that but it's behind a bungalow in a village very near to cheltenham town centre.
we have discussed the situation and decided to move on in morning as the owner is not here we have written a note explaining why we have left early and posted it with the fee for 4nights we have been there "as he did not take it when we arrived" as well as a warning that we will be reporting the events to the CC when we get home next week.
now the only question is where next??? back to a commercial site I suppose.must say up to press I'm not too keen on the CL exprience this is only the second one we have been on the last one was behind a pub next to the beer garden??

 

[Parksy]

I am staying on a lovely site at the moment at Ashton underhill near Evesham , handy for the Cotswolds , Stratford upon Avon , super wide pitches , and its the most peaceful site i have stayed on , nice showers and WC , and at £7.00 per night including electric who needs a rally field or a solar panel

Joby's quote is from the solar panel topic in the Technical section. I'm not sure but the site may be This One
It's not too far from Cheltenham

 

[Surfer]

I am staying on a lovely site at the moment at Ashton underhill near Evesham , handy for the Cotswolds , Stratford upon Avon , super wide pitches , and its the most peaceful site i have stayed on , nice showers and WC , and at £7.00 per night including electric who needs a rally field or a solar panel

Joby's quote is from the solar panel topic in the Technical section. I'm not sure but the site may be This One
It's not too far from Cheltenham

Definitely not as is nearer to Tewkesbury than Cheltenham and is a full blown caravan site. Also the one Joby is referring to is not a CL any more and is a large site. You should try it sometime. I think it is called Northfield farm .
I cannot blame the CL owner for taking on extra caravans On many occasion, they have been let down by people making bookings and then not pitching up. They then overbook thinking that some will not arrive but they all do. Not worth chasing up as then every one loses out if the CL is closed down.

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

It's definately worth chasing up IMO!
The CC and C&CC recommendations are that units are supposed to be 6m apart - anything less could be deemed as a fire risk!
Imagine being packed in like sardines and somebody's caravan goes up in smoke - not an ideal situation!!

 

[Dustydog]

Colin
The owner is well out of order.
Apart from the CC rules and guidelines the Local Authority also grant Licences to CLs allowing the usage of the land as a CL.

One of my favourite treasures in North Devon often has more than 5 but not in the main CL field. The Lady owner uses her bottom field with EHU cables from the Farmhouse to the caravans but only for people she knows well. I admit I have spent many a week in this makeshift but very pretty field on the strict instructions we are her "personal guests".
The situation you have experienced is not the norm and I think it will be a great shame if you allow this to put you off. But do complain to the Owner and the CC.

 

[joeby]

Surfer got it right ,it is Northfield Farm in Ashton Under hill , it used to be a CL , but the owner pulled out , as a club was telling them how much to charge , and he also had his own caravan on site , and they told him he couldnt keep it there , so he got fed up with them bossing him about on his own land ,and pulled out , its a lovely site and really peaceful , it has lots of space on the pitches , we had a herd of cows behind us and i thought we going to be woken at the crack of dawn , but we never heard a thing , the only thing that kept me awake was the sciatica in my left leg , after staying there i cant see how other sites charg 3 times what they charge

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

The CLs I've used have always stuck to the rules with the exception of one. This was at The Leen at Pembridge which had six of us on. This wasn't a problem to us because the site was big enough. They also had a small rally field with no EHU which had two vans on.
Before booking a CL I always look at Google Maps aerial view and also Street View. Looking at The Leen now it shows 6 vans on the CL and 5 on the rally field.
I wouldn't book a CL so small as a 1/4 acre if I could help it because I like a bit of space. Maybe we are just lucky but so far we haven't been to one that we wouldn't recommend to others. All have been satisfactory and have passed His Windyships approval.
And yes, I would report it.

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

We've only had one experience of a 1/4 acre pub CL, and that was at St Teath in Cornwall - must be 25 years ago, and long since closed up!

The site was a car park for the pub users - it was full of mud - we stayed there approx 5 hours - packed up, and spent the night in a layby (you could in those days!)

In our caravanning years, we've stayed on loads of CL's and always avoid those that are small, and those close to or "pub" types!

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all.
thanks for the reply's we packed up and moved on this morning it took almost 3hrs in full baking sun to pack up because 3 of the other vans also packed up and left one was due off any way but two of the others decided last nite to move the same as we did sighting overcrowding as the cause the site will be more peace full now with only 4 vans on but the CC WILL be recieving at least 3 complaints about the site.
we are now on a small commercial just outside taunton for a few days to look around the area before going northward and home again on sunday,
are we put off by our experience of CL's this holiday to be honest yes we are it was an exersize to save a bit of money but has not worked for us,
ps. how do you lot cope emptying the toilet straight down the cespit the stench when the cover was removed made me phisically sick might just be me being soft having been used to the flush type elsan point that commercials allways seem to have.
maybe we will have another go in september on sites that are recommended by other members but for now CL's are not on the menu.
colin

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

Colin, don't let this experience of a CL prevent you from using them in future - you always get the random not so good!

Do your research and I bet you will be using CL's again very shortly!

As far as the cesspit is concerned, can't help you there, OH does all that - although I would if I had to!

 

[Beachball]

Hi Colin I hope this is a one off because we are going to a CL site with the caravan club near blackpool for Adults only and a max ( 5 ) vans for 6 nights in July on a superpitch and any more come in after that, and we will be heading home and i think you should report them you have gone for a quite break .......

 

[Surfer]

The CLs I've used have always stuck to the rules with the exception of one. This was at The Leen at Pembridge which had six of us on. This wasn't a problem to us because the site was big enough. They also had a small rally field with no EHU which had two vans on.
Before booking a CL I always look at Google Maps aerial view and also Street View. Looking at The Leen now it shows 6 vans on the CL and 5 on the rally field.
I wouldn't book a CL so small as a 1/4 acre if I could help it because I like a bit of space. Maybe we are just lucky but so far we haven't been to one that we wouldn't recommend to others. All have been satisfactory and have passed His Windyships approval.
And yes, I would report it.

We have used that site a few times and found the owners to be helpful and friendly. The field is actully split in two with poles indentifying the overflow field. We used to go to the Red Lion in Pembridge for a drink and found the locals to be very friendly.
Problem with reporting a site is that the owner gets the hump and shuts it down because during the winter he probably has no income from the site. We then all lose out. If there is enough room, good luck to the owner, but if units are on top of one another your insurance may become invalid and you would need to claim off the owner. A fine line to tread when deciding whether to report or not.
We are off to Northfield farm near Evesham this weekend. Thanks to Joby for reminding me about it. Cheaper than being on a muddy field in the middle of nowhere with no EHU so Parksy needs to try it! LoL!

 

[Parksy]

................Cheaper than being on a muddy field in the middle of nowhere with no EHU so Parksy needs to try it! LoL!

I certainly will Surfer now that I know which site it is and where it is. We often stay on the sports club grounds next to the river in Evesham which is a few minutes walk from the town centre (hardly the middle of nowhere

) but I'll save Northfield for when the weather turns cooler.
We enjoy using certified sites and have rarely had a problem with overcrowding but we stayed on a delightful cs near to Chepstow which had fantastic views across the Wye valley from where we pitched, in fact one of the most scenic sites that we've stayed on.
We went out shopping on the Saturday morning only to return to find that what looked like a bunch of new age travellers had turned up in an assortment of old vans and the one hand painted (matt black) ex post office Sherpa had pitched about 8 feet from the front of our caravan completely blocking our view.
Obviously I was somewhat less than pleased so I pointed out to the occupants in no uncertain terms that besides displaying extreme bad manners in pitching as they had they were actually breaking rules regarding distance between units.
After coaxing the asthmatic old banger into life they grudgingly moved it a few feet until they were about 10 yards from us and the old vans formed a sort of wagon train circle from which they played loud music and lit an enormous camp-fire which caused our caravan to become smoke logged.
I complained to the lady site owner but to no avail, she seemed to be a bit of a bohemian type as well. I wrote to the C&CC about the episode but I never had any reply or acknowledgement of my communication, there were definitely more than 5 caravans, people were sleeping in these beat up old vans as well as tents so beautiful as the site may be it's off our list.
p.s. Although it was 'in the middle of nowhere' on the Offa's **** footpath Surfer there were ehu's and toilets / showers. A C&CC rally marshall would have soon sorted them out

 

[joeby]

any body who has never been to northfield before ,as you drive in there is a small field on the right which is flat at the bottom by the road but quite steep higher up , and there is also a small field to the left ,which seemed a bit uneven to me , but as you look towards what looks like the end of the road , you will see a yellow barn , behind the yellow barn is another field which is near level thats where i normally pitch , the pitches are numbered 1-5 , the owners are very nice people , any body who likes fishing turn right out of the site and carry straight on for about half a mile and you will see a lake on the left , its full of Carp up to about 15lb , we had 2 good days there with fish up to 8lb , day tickets £5.00 on the bank

 

[Moonstone1]

hi all.
a question for all you regular CL users what would you do when your quiet little 1/4acre back garden C/L gets overcroweded with 8 vans !!!!!

Report it! - We recently stayed on one which had 25 vans on!!! The owner said he'd slightly overbooked due to 'no shows'! I don't think so, just a greedy owner ramming people on a site. The site clearly had 25 hookups so wasn't a mistake at all and was still advertising for vacancies via a board at the entrance.

I don't moan when it's only one or two over the limit, but to be fair - these sites are advertised as 5 van sites and should be just that - people like peace and quiet with minimal facilties, that's why then use them.

 

[Surfer]

any body who has never been to northfield before ,as you drive in there is a small field on the right which is flat at the bottom by the road but quite steep higher up , and there is also a small field to the left ,which seemed a bit uneven to me , but as you look towards what looks like the end of the road , you will see a yellow barn , behind the yellow barn is another field which is near level thats where i normally pitch , the pitches are numbered 1-5 , the owners are very nice people , any body who likes fishing turn right out of the site and carry straight on for about half a mile and you will see a lake on the left , its full of Carp up to about 15lb , we had 2 good days there with fish up to 8lb , day tickets £5.00 on the bank

We normally use the small field on the left as your view over the countryside is not blocked . Behind the barn used to be a few seasonal sites. May have a look at the those on this visit.

 

[admiral1757]

I hope you took photos as evidence, this has only happened once to us in many years of using Cl/CS's