Sandy Balls going non Touring?
Looks as if Sandy Balls are turning their backs od touring and tenting. They have a planning application to convert the sites to lodges. Doesn't say much for their previous customer base by the way the phrase to application!!!
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16112384.Plans_to_site_108_holiday_lodge_caravans/
David
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It will still be a hutted encampment, no matter what they call it.
But they do have a point about "bright" touring caravans. Even nature trys to make them green.
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Never had any interest in going there anyway.The name alone puts one off.. But mark my words, there will be many more XTouring sites turning their backs of tourers over the next few years, that with unavailability of decent EV towcars and the increasing tax on diesel vehicles, the whole tourer market will most likely turn in on it'self.
Even the CMC will adopt cabins/statics/camping pods and glamping. ------ Oh wait a minute they already have started. One thing's for sure, the caravan leisure industry will change completely during the next 20 years or so.
K
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Exactly what I would do if I owned a patch of land.....
Start by applying for planning permission for a few caravans in a grassy field.........seems harmless enough....
Then after a few years tell the council we wanted to provide higher quality visitor accomodation, lodges, they will lap up that sort of B/S.....
Then after a few more years when the locals have accepted almost permanent residential accomodation, tell them we want to help out the housing crisis with a bit of social housing and a few executive houses, bingo...planning permission granted and my pension sorted........
We can only hope our club is steered by members as a "touring" club......
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I would think that their decision to do this was based on profit margins far more than any other reason, in fact probably the only reason.
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I've found it quite acceptable for a mid-week out of season break when it is also quite good value. This development is, for me, a bit disappointing.
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agree, but like many we can pick and choose our dates/deals...
in season, it was crowded and expensive, in low season, spacious and a bargain....
however, we have used a lovely CL 800m up the road and another small site just 300m beyond that (which also takes C&CC THS meets)...
also, any campers wishing to use the SB facilities can still do so....
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from the renaming of the various parts of the Sandy Balls complex since it was taken over I think they are going after the Center Parcs crowd.
For now it is true you could stay at the CL just a stones throw up the road and pay to use the pool/eat at the restaurant...
Till the Barbed wire and barriers arrive like at Center Parcs ;-)0 -
You are going to need a lot of 5 van CL's to replace the 225 pitches being lost!!
We did visit a couple of years ago and as other say out of season at a tenner a night it was good value for a a serviced pitch with use of swimming pool etc. but not somewhere to go in high season with the sky high prices.
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I've used it a couple of times out of season. It made a good location for a 'shake-down trip' at the beginning of the season as it's only forty minutes away.
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we've used it a few times....good for a family gathering, takes MH, has other accommodation for those without vans....great facilities, good walks cycling and bus stop for forest trip...also happy to have visitors (yes, even from a CL) to come and use bar, restaurant etc...
great location, shame the tourers are disappearing but we will still stroll up and mooch about if we fancy it...
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I suppose if they can get these sort of prices for static accommodation, £352 for the superior caravan for a week in January, £1317 in August, it makes sound economic sense. I assume Hoseasons are in business to make as much as possible from their asset.😀
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As has been said before ,these places are mostly designed to extract the most out of what the market will stand and both clubs work in the same way,except at much more reasonable prices ,we were "advised "at one of the Haven sites that touring units are a side line that cost more than they get in return, especially in off peak times, but at the moment are a market to tap into ,as they help with the off peak costs of running a complex,so it may be SB has decided it is no longer worth it
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Most of the caravan nights displaced by a few of the gigantic sites closing to touring will go to other sites and make them more fully occupied and therefore more viable financially for their owners - commercial or club - site or CL.
It is just culling of the weakest to make the herd stronger.
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It has not been a touring club for years.
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really? how so? Do club sites have touring or static caravans?
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Towable statics, a lot of the units are too large for genuine touring, you will not see many tootling around devon and Cornwall looking for a nights pitch, they are also thin on the ground in north wales, cumbria and large swathe's of the rest of the country, total myth unless you are a true Romany, sorry that's the way it is.
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Rose coloured spec's comes to mind, people that tour are like hen's teeth, not many about.
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Two nights max and move on, remember "enroute", Well when CC dumped it that signaled the end of touring, it might have resurfaced a bit with the Scottish 500 when people found what touring's about but numbers are killing it, no a touring member is a rare beast.
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Seems I’m a rare beast, then. Anyone else out there?
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The days of the American style of "touring"are thankfully mostly in the , past, where now an area can be properly "explored"before moving on in the next stage of the tour, so the two night stay is now for those with no real interest in the area they are "dashing amercan style" through just to tick a box on their itinerary
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