Lady Margaret's Park closure for refurbishment
We have just received information, via email on 21/09/21, affecting our booking with you at Lady Margaret’s over the New Year period.
We booked our 6 night stay last year, at the earliest possible date, and at that time there was no mention of any possible future works or site closure – if there had been we would not have booked, unless that is why you didn’t tell people! We are extremely annoyed that you are giving us such short notice of a possible closure, especially at such a busy time of year when sites are booked up early.
We are part of a group of 3 vans that have booked together at this time of year for the past 12+ years and this in itself is one reason why we book a site for this time of year early. Giving us this information at such short notice is absolutely no use at all. We are between a rock and a hard place – having to try and find another site and miss out on Lady Margaret’s if the site remains open, or keeping the booking open, with fingers crossed, and risking having no where to go if the site closes.
You have forwarded details of 2 alternative sites – one is almost in our back yard but even so neither of these two sites can accommodate 3 vans at those dates – totally useless as an alternative option.
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Just frustrated especially when you need to book so early to just make sure you get a pitch and then it's taken away from you or possibly not at such short notice. As it is with everyone its been an horrendous year and when we are allowed to go out they the decide to upgrade the site possibly over a peak time!
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Hasn’t LMP been shown as closed over the Christmas / New Year period for some time, as has Clumber Park. It seems remiss of the club not to have contacted folk sooner. However, I can’t say I am surprised, a similar thing happened to us with Chatsworth and we heard nothing. In the end the upgrade was cancelled and our booking went ahead. As the planning for Clumber has been delayed, I wonder if they have yet told those who have Christmas and New Year booked.🤔
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Very typical of the club recently. I just wished they would communicate more effectively with their members . I must admit I haven't looked at the booking since we booked it in January. Why didn't they contact us when they started blocking any bookings or when they put the planning permission in in May this year.
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I think as many organisations ,many staff are still "not in the office"and working from home ,relying on "technology" and others keeping information up to date to the appropriate people ?
OHs son who is head of department and is still working from home ,says communication is still very slow in some quarters
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The long overdue closure for refurbishment at Lady Margaret's Park has been delayed several times but confirmation has now been given for the planned work to go ahead, thus the site will close at the end of October. It has been discussed on here several times.
You'd be better to address your comments directly to the club at East Grinstead as those responsible for informing members of closures and/or the Sites Team aren't likely to see it on here.
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Yes I agree LM does need refurbishing - my issue is the lack of communication from the club (I have emailed them directly about this) and trying to at least help other members who may not yet be aware - as i wasn't until the email dropped into my inbox.
I'm also a little confused as the dates you refer to do not correspond to those given to me in the email from the club, nor do they correspond to the information on the local authority planning application site - where there is still no final decision given as objections have not been addressed. This confusion and uncertainty just exasperates the situation.
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I have found myself in a similar position to the writer of the original post. I too received an email today informing me that the site MIGHT be closed from November 1st.
Whilst I understand that the Caravan Club has had ideas in the pipeline to enlarge and renovate this site for sometime, I find this "last minute" decision to inform the membership totally unacceptable. It seems that planning permission has not yet been granted so the site is quite likely to stay open anyway. Surely a better decision would be to wait until AFTER permission has been granted and at that point stop taking further bookings and notify the membership.If I recall, there was a proposal to complete these works a couple of years ago and in that case, the Club refused to accept bookings until it was known for sure whether works were to commence or not. This was in PLENTY of time for people to find alternative accommodation, which we successfully did. - A quick check at the proposed alternatives given to us show that we won't be so lucky this time.
The Club knows how pitches are in such great demand, especially at New Year when this site is always fully booked, so to expect over 100 pitches to be found at short notice elsewhere is a tall order.
The reason we choose Lady Margaret's is because of it's location so that we can meet-up with friends and family at New Year. If I wanted to be 20-odd miles away, then I'd book a site 20-odd miles away!So, I'm left with a tough decision, do I stick with this booking in the hope that the site stays open or cancel it in the vague hope of finding somewhere else?
This is a very poor way to treat the membership who have stuck with the Club despite getting precious little for their membership fees over the last 12 months or more.
Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to pay that £54 membership fee last week.
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Try Rosedale Caravan park at Penley, not far from Chirk.
It is open all year but adults only.
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Planning permission hasn’t yet been granted. Perhaps the Club hope it will be passed at the October planning committee meeting at Wrexham County Council. But if you look at the planning website, there are still some outstanding issues for the Club to sort out.
The way I have read the plan, I may of course be wrong, is that there will be slightly fewer caravan/motorvan pitches and eight new camping pitches. I couldn’t see anything about glamping pods, but the pitches in the second cul de sac are called ‘plots’ on the plan, so again, I may be wrong, but I wonder if the second cul de sac will be for pods. (Near the storage).
Hope it will be lovely when finished, it’s a favourite of ours.
Good luck to the OP with finding an alternative for Xmas. Perhaps a CL?
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Annoying for the OP yes. But if it was me, I would try Rosedale, which is a lovely Site with all facilities and not waste time on this issue with the Club. Get your break sorted at a nice alternative.....then argue about communications with the Club, leave it any longer and others will get the alternatives first.
I do agree that communication from HQ to the Membership is dire at times, and not what to expect from a multi million pound business. And using Covid as an excuse is poor frankly, this pre dates Covid.
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