Is it just me???

[Ray R]

Perhaps its just me but has common sense gone AWOL here, when temperatures are well below freezing it is no more than you would expect that standpipes away from the central amenities blocks are frozen, perhaps this accounts for the wardens attitude when people complain about the most ludicrous things, what next complaining to the warden about the weather on site !!..
If you can't deal with the conditions wait for the summer.

Jasper - If making comments then please read the original post.
We had taken all reasonable precations and arrived fully equiped for the weather conditions. The issue was that the site hadn't, otherwise their pipes would be operational all year, as other sites seem to be capable of doing.
If we'd been informed by the receptionist upon arrival it wouldn't have been such a big deal but having pitched the last thing I needed was moving again especially when they knew all of the standpipes were frozen.
Still, we live and learn, so next winter I'll phone ahead to wherever we book and confirm all is in order before setting off.

I had read the original post which consisted of you complaining about standpipes away from the amenities block being frozen in the worst winter temperatures we have experienced for years, I suppose its all down to expectations and most reasonable people would have expected that to be the case.

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Lada
We were away for the whole two weeks at Carnon Downs. On the 23rd the fully serviced pitch ceased to be. The cold water pipe had frozen below ground, our waste pipe had frozen as had our blue water hose feed pipe.
Fortunately the Aquaroll , in its insulated bag, was still ok and I had filled the onboard tank the day before.We set up our Wastemaster, checked the alcohol levels in our bar and had a good time.

Only once did I have to walk nearly 350 yards to find a working tap. That probably did me some good

The Wardens suggested using the water from the shower block. I would have done but it was impossible to fill the aquaroll from the taps, wrong design.
One evening we had an electricity power cut.
Did all this stop us having fun? No.
The last few weeks in the UK have been the worst on record .The Carnon Downs Wardens kept the site immaculate. How on earth could I blame them or any other wardens for the big freeeze. The whole point of all year caravanning is to take these little issues in your stride and perhaps just be a little more understanding of the circumstances.
I do not want sites being closed in winter just because the odd pipe freezes up .It really isn't the end of the world!

 

[Gafferbill]

…….it is still a fact that standpipes can be relatively cheaply insulated and proofed against freezing by fitting them with thermostatically controlled electric heat tape.

A well managed site opened all year and situated at Berwick upon Tweed should have some of its water supply taps protected in this way.
At the very least they should have shown more concern at the situation as reported to them by Lada.

A farmer could be prosecuted if he allowed the water supply to his stock to freeze so that they had no water to drink.
He could not use the exceptional weather as a defence.

I have sympathy with Lada as I have been on a similarly run campsite further up the A1 at Haddington.
I was there at the new year 2001/2002........ snow and temperatures down to –16 degC.
The only water intermittently available was at the toilet block.
There was also a complete failure of the sites electric hook up supply.

The only reaction that I could get out of the owner and staff was the comment….........

" You should have had more sense than to come in the middle of winter"

Fortunately I had only paid a small deposit so was able to drastically reduce what I finally paid.
Now my caravan is fully winterised so we were able to run on Propane/12volts and get about in my 4x4.
We saw in the New Year after walking to the top of Authur’s Seat in Edinburg along with about 500 others, we were toasting perfect strangers with Glenfiddich and had a birdseye view of the Cities fireworks.
We had a great time in spite of staying at a poorly managed campsite.