An accident in waiting
I know over the years many comments have been made about children on club sites. Before you think here we go again , another moaning old sod , please read on . We recently stayed at Bridington club site , wonderful facilities , lovely location , great wardens , but our stay spoiled by children , who don't know any better and parents who couldn't care less . We stayed here out of main holidays , thinking , stupidly , the site would be quiet. How wrong could we have been . The area in front of our caravan was used as a play ground for children on scooters , bikes , skate boards etc. We endured this for a couple of nights , but then when the foot balls came out , it was time to leave . The point of my thread is to remind parents , site roads are for the movement of cars /caravans , not as a race track for children . The number of near misses we witnessed , where drivers had to brake hard or change direction suddenly because of children on bikes or what ever , had to be seen to be believed . I hasten to add all the driver we saw did keep to 5mph speed limit. It only takes a driver backing out from his unit onto the road , a child racing by on what ever , and you have a fatality in the making . Some poor sole would then have to live with the consequences for life. Please dear parents take heed , the Club spend a lot of money in providing play areas , and realise, this is a much safer place to play than on site roads . I am afraid this experience has put us off using Club sites , this was out of season and in the week , I dread to think what it would have been like in main holiday time, or at week-end.
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Thank you for taking care and driving safely while the children were around. I am glad they were all unharmed and that no accidents happened.
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It does sound very familiar.
I'll ask the obvious question of Luke. Did you report the dangerous events to the warden and what did he/she do about it?
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I wonder what braking hard and suddenly changing direction at 5mph looks like?
When you say the area in front of your caravan was used quote: play ground for children on scooters , bikes , skate boards, do you mean they just went round in circles in front of your caravan or just were passing through?
This is the main school holidays by the way. Some go back on Monday, some a week on Tuesday.
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No-one should have to put up with that sort of disturbance to their holiday, Luke, and, indeed, you don't have to since mentioning what was happening to the wardens would surely have been more effective than complaining about it on here?
Still, on the positive side, at least there weren't hordes of dogs barking continuously!
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Cornersteady I mean playing continuously on road in front of my van. Even being hit at 5mph will cause harm to a child and still has a chance of ending up under a cars wheels. Drivers do not always stick to 5mph. I just knew someone would side with the children.When we were on site it was outside main school holidays.
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Essex schools have just returned. They had the 2 weeks before Easter plus Easter weekend. Some returned on Tuesday some on Wednesday. It appears Tyne and Wear are different. The Scots and private schools are different as well. So it's difficult to tell whether it's term time!
We have to get a solution to this but I'm not sure how. Playgrounds aren't usually designed for bike and scooters and probably ball games, so maybe they need to be thought about. Drivers don't always stick to the speed limit, kids ignore one way systems sometimes! Definitely dangerous are kids racing where drivers are reversing from between vans.
I agree it's an accident waiting to happen indeed sadly I believe it has. No one wants it on their conscious. But I love to see children playing and would hate the sites to be devoid of them, equally not having a vehicle beside your van.
What is needed is tolerance by all. 😉
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There are some very nice Adult only sites to seek out.
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I am not siding with children or you, I didn't realise it was a question 'siding' with anyone. I don't doubt you have had your holiday disturbed but what is a great annoyance with children to one poster is hardly any to another. I wasn't there so cannot claim to know. However there are some inconsistencies in both your posts and that is all I'm pointing out.
I'm still not sure why you posted now if your stay was so long ago (Easter Holidays could have been anywhere from two weeks before Easter to two weeks after) but I just can't understand that if there were so many children as you claim playing? so when was this?, and I still wonder why you didn't report this to the wardens rather than on here?
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Luke, forgive me but I'm a little confused. Your review of the site, dated 17/04 says you stayed "a few days ago". Therefore that would make it bang in the middle of the school holidays surely ( and would certainly explain a large number of children on site).
Most of the other reviews appear to go out of their way to praise the site staff. Therefore I'd suggest again that if you'd made them aware of the situation it would very likely have been resolved.
You've obviousy had an unfortunate experience, but in my experience over 40+ years of camping and caravanning I'd have to say that what you describe is much more uncommon on club sites than commercial ones, especially in popular family holiday areas such as Bridlington. So, lesson learned and all that - if you're not happy with what's going on,speak to the site staff - they are there to help you!
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As he has twice evaded the question, I think we can assume that Luke didn't raise the issue with the wardens. That's a great shame as it would have achieved far more than posting here.
Roll on August, eh, when the silly season is really under way.
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I raised the question of children on bikes not sticking to the one way system with a warden and her answer was that she would be eaten alive by the parents as the little darlings are on holiday. My children were never on holiday from basic road safety rules such as one way systems. I had nearly hit a child reversing off my pitch and looking the right way down the road. Never again I will always assume there might be one. No I don't usually reverse off but I think I parked in torrential rain.
I have never bothered to raise such a point with a warden again I don't like wasting my breath!
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Children are allowed to cycle, scooter, roller blade etc along site roads. With the 5 mph speed limit, I think that it is one of the safer places for young ones to enjoy themselves on wheels. Obviously they should be well supervised by Mum n Dad and it has to be within the site rules.
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The moral of the tale is, if you don't want to be bothered by other folks children, choose your site, your dates wisely. Bridlington at Easter is not a wise choice.
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Except children?
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from which side?
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Suggest that the OP may like to take a slightly less aggressive attitude towards children... They're just kids for goodness sake, it's not their fault, they just don't understand the risks yet. It's also not their fault that their parents aren't better managing the risk on their behalf. The OP (and all of us who drive on sites) are adults, qualified to drive. We should consider the risks and adjust our attitudes behind the wheel to keep everyone safe. Top tip OP: stop thinking of it as a 'road' around a site. It's not a 'road', it's just a marked hard route between you and your pitch. Normal rules don't apply. If in doubt, go slower. Reverse in to your pitch if you're worried about backing out. It's not complicated.
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That's club site's for you, do what you like when you like.
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I have seen folk drive the wrong way on the one way system many times so if adults can't adhere to it how can we expect kids to ??
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Seems very odd that a poster is attacked for having dared to go on holiday in a period that might overlap with a school holiday period and then further attacked for not complained to the warden about an obvious problem on the site (that surely the warden would be able to see for himself - as manager of the site).
I know that kids can do no wrong in some people's eyes, but there are some truly awful parents out there, who couldn't care less what their kids are doing, so long as they don't interfere with the beer and wine drinking.
His complaint appears to be very valid - why attack him for making it?
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