To stay or not to stay, what would you do?
I have felt quite anxious about what to write/who to write to regarding the below situation, so thought as a start to see what fellow members think.
We are three families, 2 adults and 2 children in two of the families and 2 adults 3 children in the other family, we also have a set of grandparents that are present but they are a separate entity.
We have been staying on the same site and the same time for over 10, 12 years years all of us, we met on the site, have become good friends from the site with 2 families living less than 3 miles from each other when at home, our children have grown up as holiday friends and become real time friends also. We have all met/social time outside of staying on site.
We all stay for 3 weeks and this year as was last year albeit a little less our collective fees are over 3.2k for us all
We have seen a few wardens/assistant wardens/relief wardens over that time, the vast majority have been excellent, we've seen the wardens leave but have stayed in the area and bought themselves a home local to the site, other wardens have left but we still see them, sometimes they stand in for the main warden as they did last year for a few days.
Of course our children have had the occasional run-in with the wardens as a lot of boisterous happy to be on holiday children do and in all but the case I'm about to mention the wardens have been spot on, taking the children to one side if the need be and advising them of a way forward, so much so the wardens/children had a respect between them, the children felt safe around them, the wardens would take time out of their busy days and stop to talk to them or watch them play etc....all excellent and how it should be. I'm pretty certain some of the wardens we've encountered would attest to our children being respectful and fun to be around.
However, and this is the point of my post...
Over the last two years and our children are obviously getting older we have had a problem with a particular set of relief wardens (and only the relief wardens) 2022 was the first year we encountered them, keeping in mind our children know the site, know the ropes as do we as their parents. In 2022 and the very first night we were there our children were excited to all meet up, a little loud, maybe a little too loud for a short tune and boisterous...the result was and late in the evening around 10pm we had the relief wardens at our awning and our friends awning threatening to kick us off the site the following day due to our loud and what they termed 'cheeky' children, we addressed this with the main warden the following morning, they had no problem with us but stated the new wardens were finding their feet and as long as he didn't have a problem then there would be no problem and he preferred things to run smooth and all get along, yes please!
A couple of days later our friends who are pensioners and who take their grand children with them each year were visited again by the relief wardens with a stern warning on keeping their dog on a lead and not to let the dog wander/bark. The dog was off the lead but always stayed (it's since passed away) within the confines of its own awning/pitch, it wasn't the type of dog to wander off.....the tone of voice, the subliminal threats to remove from the site were there...
and so it went on, the entire 3 weeks the relief wardens would find a reason to visit one set of us for one reason or another. It got to the point where out children would stay in the park part late on, chatting and small radio occasionally and yet occasionally a little loud, one of us, usually my partner would visit them at the park and remind the children to calm down and be respectful of those pitching close by..but you could count on the relief wardens being at our awnings the following morning stating they'd hadd numerous complaints. This was almost the entire 3 weeks stay, during the three weeks many other children arrived who our own had forged friendships with over the years, at one point their was a large group of 15+ enjoying each others company only to be told to move away or go into their respective caravans as they shouldn't be heard (this was often before 10pm.
So roll on to 2023 and yet another new warden at the site, but as we have found over the years one that knows the score, doesn't run things with an iron rod, takes the time to get to know us and us them, stopped to speak and actually was a real nice guy as was his partner, we had zero problem with him....but the relief wardens were the same from the year before, this year we were informed by them before they'd really even said hello that the park was closed at 10pm now, no visitors to and hoped our children would keep themselves in line...
It got to the point where our children had to take themselves off to the middle of large field outside of the site but within the sites boundary and sit and chat there, no problem with that but the relief wardens were often out at 10pm checking nobody had dared to venture into the playground, or that the children were not making a nuisance of themselves by hey ho visiting the toilet block....any minor issue and the wardens would admonish the children, 'don't run on site' really? don't whizz round the site on bikes even though other families children were doing so, 'if you're to stay up in the field keep it down' and even then the wardens at 10pm could be found wandering around our pitches checking if the children were in them or not..
On some occasions with a large group the wardens would admonish them for being noisy and occasionally our children when being told off for something they hadn't done would speak back and tell them it's not right, this would then result in the relief wardens visiting one of all of us to tell us our children were being cheeky. The same would go for when something was damaged in the toilet block or water on the floor or whatever, of course it was our children. It all felt quite personal, it made our children feel very uncomfortable when the relief wardens were on duty, my own youngest daugther became a hermit at night towards the end of the break and would not leave the van in the evenings... We thought wardens knocked off generally around 6pm save for if there are late entries, but these relief wardens would go out almost on patrol at 10pm most evening dressed in their civvies looking for our children, seeing where they are and moving them on if they didn't like where they found them? 10pm site patrol? No other wardnes/relief wardens has ever been like that to out knowledge.
There is more, much more but as some of it was from the other two sets of parents then its perhaps for them to say something, what I do know is the one set of parents who were there for a few days more after we left had the relief wardens at their awning on their final night with the end result being they were adamant they were not going to book this year (after 12+ years of being there ever year)
This isn't how it should be, I am all for respectful children, I will call my children out if I think they've been too much but on the same token I absolutely trust them, they do not lie to me regardless of if they're going to be told off/sanctioned in some way, they tell the truth and yet these relief wardens have informed us on many occasions that our children have 'done this, said that' and when we've asked our children it's not how they saw it.....
So what to do, we're not far away from our pilgrimage but all three of us families are considering cancelling due to our children feeling nervous about going, not wanting to cause trouble, but they do want to enjoy themselves etc....If we do cancel I will also cancel my club membership (not through a fit of pique but because it's pretty much the only time I use the membership features).
I speak for all three sets of parents with this post, they/we all want to address it for a resolution, we were going to try and set up a zoom call with the club but don't even know if thats feasible.
We're grown adults who lead busy lives outside of our holidays and where we rarely if ever come into conflict with others, our children are respectful, they neither drink/smoke/litter/vandalise/steal....but they are children that enjoy fun with their peers and sometimes this may require them being asked to calm down/change tact/ be mindful of others but whose children are not like this.
So, what to do? I was going to approach the club/speak to the area manager for the site.....
ps: apologies for any grammar/spelling errors.
I do want to make it abundantly clear, that in the vast majority of the wardens (all save for this set of relief wardens) they've been excellent, kept the site today, been respectful, fun even and we have zero problem with any of them, in general we've found the site wardens to be professional in their role as wardens, we can't knock them.
Comments
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Jogon, you need to contact CAMC
https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/contact/compliments-and-complaints/
I will report your post to the Community Manager in case she can forward details to the relevant department.
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Jogon
As TW says you really need to contact the Club direct as no one here can really provide you with the answers you require. If you do that I would suggest that you will have to be more specific with times and dates etc. You seem to reference 10.00pm which is a time when many on a site would expect it to be quiet?
David
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None of us wanted to report it , the first year we gave it the benefit of the doubt, the relief wardens were new to the job/finding their feet, but last year it became an issue to the point where our children at times felt very uncomfortable and we as parents found ourselves on edge waiting for the next round of awning visits.
What makes it difficult is we have no desire to cause them any problems, we’re sure they’re nice people but separately all three of our families left last year thinking ‘never again’ and that isn’t how it should be.
As stated previous, we’ve holidayed here all of us for over a decade, never a problem until 2022/3.
I don’t relish the thought of my youngest hiding herself away and not communicating with her mates, the family that left after us last year and having the wardens at their awning on the last night giving them a hard time were adamant they were not going to use the site again, it’s taken me close to 9 months to convince them to give it another go but they’re now worried as to what awaits them this year.
I’m reasonably certain the club keeps a record on their members infractions at site, I dread to think what ours looks like after the last couple of years but ido think we need to address matters so as to have things evened up a little.
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I have never heard of the club, or a club site, keeping such records and it's not a question of anything being evened up.
As said above no one can make any decisions or answers going forward for you or any of your friends and family, it is totally up to you.
Personally I think 10pm is quite late btw and perhaps other campers spoke to the wardens and the wardens therefore acted. While wardens occasionally do an evening stroll they rarely act in this way unless something is reported to them as they can't see all the site at one time or they hear something themselves.
But if you feel you are being targeted then the only way forward is to contact the club direct with as DK says full details.
Additionally there might be an issues with this set of wardens and it may have happened to other families which of course you wouldn't know about, but unless you contact the club it will not get addressed.
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As Corners said, I don’t think any such records exist.
Camc site rules do ask for quiet after 10pm which might be what triggered the actions but I can’t help feeling you’re not going to relax and enjoy future stays at this site because you’re very wound up about the situation. Might it be worth trying another site?
I’m not sure what else any of us here can say, tbh, because it’s something only you and camc can resolve.
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We considered other CAMC sites but the nearest one is closed until next year and the other does not have the facilities our usual one does.
Equally we’ve been going many years, we all know the site, the locale and it’s suited us all very well, it’s our annual holiday and 10yr previous and not a blip.
We enjoy the club because we’re members and what it is/offers and would much rather support the club by using them rather than other sites.
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Personally, I think Kudos to the Relief Wardens for trying to keep equilibrium of harmony on site for ALL guests. There’s not many who would challenge a group of guests, especially in such numbers, knowing they don’t have other staff on site as backup. I would expect it would be quite intimidating to most staff, not forgetting they are also living on site, presumably without the security of a compound, to still put themselves in the thick of it. Yes, kids (albeit yours appear to be more young adults) should enjoy themselves, but not at the detriment of other paying members.
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I would block book a CL for your three families and grandparents - take another family for the last place. Have a party, eat drink and be merry. Music and a campfire would be a plus. Toast marshmallows on sticks . Club sites are the wrong place for you.
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Jogon, we can tell you nothing more and I say, once again, that you need to contact camc.
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Hi Jogon, I'm so sorry to hear you feel you had a bad experience on one of our Club Campsites. Please do report this so the relevant team can investigate and get back to you. You can do this HERE
I will close this discussion so your complaint can be dealt with directly by the relevant team through the above contact form. I will also forward this discussion on the the sites team for their feedback and reference.
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