Lovely CL, unfortunate location.
We've recently stayed at Raspberry Hill Lane CL site near Sittingbourne and being honest, not one we'll return to in a hurry.
For a disclaimer. We have been to a good number of CL sites up and down the UK. Most are lovely, some were adequate but this one is the first that we were keen to leave.
I'll give the good points first:
The site itself is nice enough, spacious and even has a toilet block and shower. The site owner is incredibly accommodating and very helpful when you arrive at the site.
Now to the big issue:
Location lets this place down unfortunately. The place next door are travellers, not the good sort either as they frequently smoke cannabis and you can smell it most days. They've been in trouble for illegally dumping waste which made the news and on a few nights they can be rather noisy in the early hours. There's been a high number of caravan thefts in the area which makes us wary of leaving the caravan despite putting wheel locks on and having the alarm set.
I suspect the CL owner is aware of the neighbours and I'd imagine that it's not easy to confront them given their nature. It's a shame as they will drive business away.
On top of this, every day you have idiots in those ridiculously loud motorbikes racing around and you have one boy racer in a very loud car driving in circles around midnight every night. It's not a peaceful site at all, even working farms are more quiet than this.
Fly tipping is rife in the area and nearby Sittingbourne is not a very nice town. We tend to go further out to Hempstead Valley for shopping.
We do our best to focus on the positives and I feel awful for the CL owner but it needs an honest review. Nothing against the CL itself, just the area it's in leaves a lot to be desired.
Have you been to similar sites to this?
Comments
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Have you added a site review as well as posting here to alert others to the issues?
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Also you should contact Ro to get your status changed to club member rather than forum participant
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I will leave a review though I am a bit hesitant as I don't wish to steer any business away from this site but I guess honesty is best!0
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I, like many others, use reviews as part of my decision making. I also leave reviews so whilst you may feel reluctant to do so I would be rather upset if having stayed there and had as bad an experience as yourself then found out I could have avoided ruining it all by finding somewhere else if only somebody had left a review. Yes, it is very sad for the owners but surely the matter is a local one and in their hands to report it to the authorities.
I fully understand your reluctance but if you ever use reviews yourself would you not want to see an honest review? Tonight, I have been looking at CLs in a region and have found good and bad reviews. I make a decision based on whether those bad reviews are for things which the writer may have been at fault for or maybe they left a review criticising farm smells whilst staying on a farm site. Always makes me ask what on earth they expected. If it's for some things I can tolerate then fine I'll book, if not I thank the writer for at least letting me know.
All you can do is write an honest review based on your own feelings and let others judge if they want to stay or not.
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100% agree! We go by reviews and most of the time the places are lovely.
The CL owner admits that the area has gone massively downhill in recent years with drugs and illegal waste dumping nearby. Plus with the area being abundant with the less than friendly traveller types. I felt bad in telling him that we're not planning on returning due to the nature of the area but he understood.
It says it all when one of the more permanent caravan residents on the site has removed the hitch and two wheels when he's gone for more than a few days!0
