C&CC closing sites
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Dorset, love it, only 2 hrs for us with the van, my Spanish daughter is in Troon Scotland and was still on the beach at 2200 hrs yesterday, who says the UK has got nothing to offer. I am sure the closing of sites will only be a temporary glitch
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There are merits to what you suggest, but the Club doesn’t own all its Sites, many are on leased land, so not sure how Club could reconcile spending a not inconsiderable amount on something that might be ultimately out of its control? (Think the current Marazion situation, where leading is currently subject to negotiation. Would any employee want residentially security that might only be for a short period....not so sure myself)
Contracting out work isn’t as simple as it sounds, it requires another tier of in-house staff responsible for developing work schedules, the tendering process, and then someone to monitor and check compliance to stated schedules. Many, many work places that originally bought into the Contracting out of services are now coming to realise that it isn’t always the easiest and cheapest, nor the most customer friendly method of ensuring services delivered and customer satisfaction is guaranteed, so the jury is out on this? Individual contracts for every Site would work out expensive, it might work for some aspects of a cluster of Sites, where this is geographically possible.🤔
Having multi discipline staff on site is usually the most cost effective, and, if they have the right set of skills, usually means that niggly little issues (a broken cistern for example) can quickly be rectified, rather than waiting (and waiting, and waiting....) for contractors to come out. Visitors get really, really annoyed at seeing more than one loo, or one shower out of use at one time.
The Club has a long history of taking on Site staff from its Membership, often those from backgrounds where people handling skills, practical ability to fix and mend basic equipment, some administration skills, some supervisory skills only need the requisite training courses to enable them to do a lot of different things. What I would say, is that from a limited observation on some Club Sites, it’s the way some of the staffing resources are time managed in terms of tasks undertaken that might bear a bit more consideration? I can’t, or rather won’t suggest where, as nowadays I am too far removed from some of the issues around health and safety.
All sorts of companies are currently struggling because of the sheer scale of Covid cases demanding they self isolate, so this is possibly just something part of a much bigger picture. It can only get worse from today onwards, at the moment. Looks like the freedom to do anything isn’t quite as “free” as anticipated, sadly.
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Back to staff recruitment.. We went to a privately owned site whose owner had moved away to pursue other business ventures, but rather than sell the site had recruited a young couple as managers.So I asked them if they had considered working for one of the Clubs instead.
They said not - here we have a permanent long term situation, a good house on site to live in and stability for the children at the local school. We now have a share in the business (although only a minority share) and an incentive to increase the profits. We can look for ways to offer more services to visitors (and make money from them), but above all we have freedom to make decisions, can vary the opening and departure times for visitors, and are not tied to a rule book and a detailed job description as we would be if we worked for one of the Clubs.
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I agree with much of Takethedogalong's post above. The Club has a certain way of doing things which probably equates to the most cost effective way of doing things. To contract out things such as toilet cleaning and ground maintenance would probably double the current cost. Now for those that doubt this would be the case. The contractors will still have to pay NMW at least, there will be an element of profit to make it worth while and there will be ongoing cost to keep machinery and vehicles in good condition. So you could end up paying double.
I also find it pointless trying to compare the Club Site Network with individual commercial campsites. The Club has a whole range of opening periods which does not lend itself to permanent on site staff. There are of course a few sites that do open all year.
David
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I think C&Cc have also tried franchising some of their sites but presumably they have to be run along the lines required?
Looking at recruitment other site operators are searching for workers too and recruits need to be very adaptable on some of the big commercial sites!
At least both clubs run set ups that basically manage sites rather than teams of entertainment, catering and maintenance staff etc.
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The C&CC franchise system works by private site owners paying C&CC for the privilege of being treated as a club site. When the scheme first started site owners were asked to pay £30k as far as I recall.
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If the two Clubs find they can continue to staff their sites in the traditional way then it will continue. I just have doubts that the Clubs can continue with that model.
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Re your last paragraph WTG, it might simply be the amount of staff now having to self isolate. If so, then this Club and it’s Sites are just as vulnerable. Looking at the latest case rates, a lot of services, shops, businesses are going to be caught up in having to self isolate.
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The costs involved suggest the site owners gain a great deal of income from operating as a C&CC franchised site rather than by paddling their own canoe.
I've stayed at the Hereford site - liked that but not so much the Cheddar site. Isle of Skye is one we've not got around to trying.
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There are regularly complaints on the Camping Club forum about sometimes not being able to transfer the deposit of a booking from one site to another - and, of course, no refunds! From previous discussions this is due to franchisees not being able to pass on the funds.
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One thing that some people fail to realise is that the majority of cc and ccc sites are on a lease or run by the clubs on behalf of the owners. which by trying to as is suggested put in locals with accommodation provided may work m on some all year sites but not the many others ,that are seasonal ?
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If you(people) can’t afford to pay a decent price you shouldn’t be doing the whole LV thing. Driving costs down to the lowest common denominator is why this Country is in such a mess, no manufacturing, failing inner citys, unreliable infrastructure just so well off folk can have even more & even cheaper. Things must & are changing🤷🏻♂️. Nirvana for some but Hell for others. It’s on its way👍🏻
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OH dear. What a stupid reply but predictable, to what is one of the main complaints about ,cost of sites
I know what the pay rates of sites is and it may be of a surprise to those less well informedPs the cost of the nearly always used in our many nights away is of no consequence to my OH and I
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It’s not a stupid reply. Anyone aware of history knows what follows a huge pandemic, and that formerly very cheap labour rates tend to climb, as there are fewer people around to carry out that cheap labour. So folks can cherry pick their work, and hopefully earn a decent wage, with better conditions as well. Couple the pandemic bullet in foot with the Brexit bullet in foot, and hey presto......labour shortage!
Personally, I am all for a damn good Peasant’s Revolt. (Leave Royals alone, let Chris Packham sort them out.) A good cleansing of the Westminster pig sties would suffice👍😁
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JV, rather than attack folk & waffle why don’t you try to address the points you disagree with. When folk have belief in their statements they openly put them out there. Others bluster & try to argue. I’m not going to argue, if you want to dispute my post-please do👍🏻
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Rocky, you know as well as I that JV doesn’t address specific points with reasoned responses. Instead, we get one of his off the shelf nonsensical posts which attempt to make us look stupid but actually have the reverse effect. 😟
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