2025 Monthly Open and Closed CL List

CLMaddie
CLMaddie Moderator, Staff Posts: 260 mod
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edited February 26 in Certificated Locations #1

Hi All,

This sticky will provide the list of any CL sites which have opened or closed from the previous month in 2025.

All of these will appear in the monthly magazine as well but this will show 2 months later.

I will provide a link to any new CL sites and list them as 'County - Listing Town - CL site'.

We now have a dedicated page on the website which will show the most recently opened CL sites and will be updated monthly.

If you have any questions please comment in this discussion and I will get back to you.

Thanks Maddie

Comments

  • CLMaddie
    CLMaddie Moderator, Staff Posts: 260 mod
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    Hi All

    The please see below a list of sites which opened and closed in January 2025.

    I have listed them by County, Listing town then CL Site. Sites with a * next to the CL name were previous sites that closed and have now decided to reopen as a CL.

    Sites opened in January:

     

    Sites closed in January:

    • Cambridgeshire - Huntingdon - Fairy's Lodge Farm
    • Cornwall - Truro - Sunnyside
    • Hampshire - Lymington - 71 Lower Ashley Road
    • Hampshire - Lymington - Danewood
    • Leicestershire - Loughborough - Bawdon Lodge Farm
    • Shropshire - Craven Arms - Glenburrell Farm
    • Warwickshire - Stratford-upon-Avon - Suakin
    • Wiltshire - Wilton - Farmer Giles Farmstead

    Thanks

    Maddie

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,414
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    @CLMaddie The dedicated page link comes up as page not found.

  • CLMaddie
    CLMaddie Moderator, Staff Posts: 260 mod
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  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 14,261
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    @CLMaddie thanks for this stickie and the dedicated page, which is now opening. Now I just have to transfer the information onto the new Site Directory.

  • CLMaddie
    CLMaddie Moderator, Staff Posts: 260 mod
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    edited April 1 #6

    Hi All

    The please see below a list of sites which opened and closed in February 2025.

    I have listed them by County, Listing town then CL Site. Sites with a * next to the CL name were previous sites that closed and have now decided to reopen as a CL.

    Sites opened in February:

     Sites closed in February: 

    • Cornwall - Launceston - Moorhaven Farm
    • Cornwall - Penryn - Penmarth Caravan Club Site
    • Cornwall - Truro - Heath Farm
    • Cumbria - Keswick - Stybeck Farm
    • Devon - Exeter - Rockbeare Court Farm
    • Fife - Leven - Monturpie
    • Gloucestershire - Chipping Sodbury - Tan House Farm
    • Hertfordshire - Bishop's Stortford - Golf World Stansted
    • Kent - Margate - Gooseberry Farm
    • Leicestershire - Melton Mowbray - Hill Top Farm Shop CL
    • Lincolnshire - Lincoln - The Railway Inn
    • Lincolnshire - Louth - Northolme Farm Alvingham
    • Moray - Glenlivet - Glenlivet
    • Norfolk - Wells-next-the-Sea - Whey Curd Farm
    • Somerset - Cheddar - Walnut Tree Farm
    • Suffolk - Saxmundham - Croft Farm
    • Warwickshire - Kenilworth - The Croft
    • West Sussex - Haywards Heath - Townings Farm

    Thanks

    Maddie

  • DaveCyn
    DaveCyn Club Member Posts: 364
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    Looks like they are closing hand over fist! There will soon be none left at this rate.

    Is this a sign the membership is expecting too much from them making them uneconomic to run? Hard standing, water supply, toilets, showers, chemical disposal point, EHU, etc all cost a lot of cash to install and maintain and with a maximum of 5 units per night it takes years to recover the investment.

    Maybe time to lower expectations and get back to basics!

  • peedee
    peedee Club Member Posts: 9,558
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    Any Chance the CL POIs can be updated please Maddie

    ppeedee

  • Bakers2
    Bakers2 Forum Participant, Forum Participant Trusted Posts: 8,342
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    edited April 1 #9

    LLet's Hope that's not the case and that they'll be reopening as independent sites.

    Have to remark that it's 1 April today and only now getting February's. I was expecting to find March ones. I did think gosh they're early this month.......

    Edit, could it be that new ones aren't getting trade/bookings because of the time lag? They won't be in the site directory. How quickly are they added to the website and App?

    I do hope the club don't lose these valuable assets and they offer as much support, including promoting them, as they can.....

  • Cornersteady
    Cornersteady Club Member Posts: 14,736
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    @DaveCyn Sorry why would I want to lower my expectations or go back to basics for my holidays just so CLs remains? Ok I realise that's a bit extreme linking those two but that's appears to be what you're saying there?

    Members join, and rejoin the club of course, for specific reasons, and especially for those using club sites it appears that what the club is offering in terms of facilities on sites including all those things you mentioned is what members want? I recall an interview with a very popular CL owner (I forgot the name but it keeps winning awards) who said to attract customers it had to put in what they wanted, like HS, SP… and also of course to make the CL viable throughout the year.

    But I would think that there are other reasons those CLs close, perhaps they want to expand and leave the CL network?

  • peedee
    peedee Club Member Posts: 9,558
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    edited April 1 #11

    Not All members CS, a bit of a sweeping statement me thinks.

    Could be down to the growth in motorhome ownership. Many owners won't like grass pitches in out of the way s places. Occupancy rates may well have fallen to make them uneconomic to run.

    peedee

  • Cornersteady
    Cornersteady Club Member Posts: 14,736
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    edited April 1 #12

    @peedee Lost me there PD, what sweeping statement?

    Perhaps you could you quote and highlight where I said all members PD, To be clear I said members join for specific reasons (which logically must be true for anyone joining), now I didn't say what these specific reasons were but obviously they are different which I thought I had made it clear when I even narrowed it down to those members joining for using club sites

    'especially for those using club sites'

    And these are the members I was talking about - those members using club sites, not the All you've put in. Hope that clear now?

    I would say again it's fairly safe to say that for those joining to club sites they must join for what club sites are like now, that is HS, SP, EHU… all the things that are there in most, if not the vast majority, of club sites.

    Ok they could have joined not knowing what to expect but they then continue their membership so they must like what they find?

    And I would say as that those sites that do not have these facilities, or are more basic, are closing/not being used enough, so in my view it's valid to say they are not what current members want as the more basic sites are not being used enough or not viable enough while 'full fat sites' appear to be?

    Now is this trend wanting better facilities now being felt on CLs as well as club sites. Judging simply by the latest open/close list perhaps it is?

  • KjellNN
    KjellNN Club Member Posts: 8,771
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    edited April 1 #13

    As a club member who does actually use CLs, in fact pretty much exclusively, we do not need toilets and showers, we have a more than adequate provision in our caravan, but we do need a hard standing most of the time as we have a heavy twin axle.

    Serviced pitches are a bonus, and we use them whenever possible, as at age 82 I like to take it easy when possible. Lack of a serviced pitch would not put us off however.

    We remain members as we like CLs, we cannot have as much time away as we want without keeping costs down, my pension does not stretch to full fat club prices these days. When working it did, but not now.

    The ever increasing club “upgrades” and of course price rises, just means we rarely use a Club site. We are soon off on a 24 night tour, and we will use 4 CLs with serviced hardstandings, and one similar commercial, average cost £24 per night.

    Have only stayed on one of those that are closing……Monturpie in Fife……they also run a commercial site so I expect they are incorporating the CL area into that.

    I would not think that CLs are feeling that they need to provide toilets and showers, but those that do will of course need to increase prices, which would not be welcomed by many CL users.

    I think there is a big divide between full fat Club site users and those of us who prefer CLs .

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,928
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    A couple of things Dave. You mention the cost of certain provisions but a CL has to supply fresh water and an Elsan emptying point. The rest is optional.

    I have noticed that, by and large, the CLs that only provide the "basics", certainly those without EHU are actually holding their own thanks to members like yourself who seek them out and prefer them. We're not adversed to a spot of back to basics every now and then. Then you have those that have been on the books for quite some time but have only really added EHU to the basics. I've noticed these are more likely to close than almost all other categories. Those that have set up recently, particularly those with Serviced pitches and/or toilet blocks ,have tended to attract custom.

    We have stayed at a couple of those on the last closed list. Both were decent enough CLs with EHU but grass pitches with no facilities. Fine by us but I think there was not enough people like us to make it economically worthwhile with the huge percentage increases overheads in recent years especially energy prices.

    The club have recently closed numerous sites that have no toilet block and are "out of the way" A change in the split in M/Hs and Caravans ownership will also have an effect. If members wanted basic sites then these sites would have been used more. However, I do think the club set the prices for these too high to attract those people. Maybe that was their objective all along.

    It looks like a couple of the new CLs are indeed basic. Neither seem to have gone out of their way to entice me to stay. No real details about the site or what's around in the area and the sole photos tell me nothing except I don't want to be there.

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 14,256
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    When you see a list like that it looks really bad but, of course, we have no idea what the reasons are for the closures. It could be as Kj suggests that a CL attached to a bigger campsite might just amalgamate the CL into the core business. Others may have plans to expand which takes them outside the parameters of the CL system. Then of course there will be those where the owners just decide they no longer want run a CL, either through age or other business commitments?

    David

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 14,261
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    @DavidKlyne once upon a time the "club" used to publish the reason why a CL has closed but no longer does that! I tend to think that it doesn't want members to see that some have moved on to be small commercial sites, and so be in the position to take trade away from club sites.

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant, Forum Participant Trusted Posts: 17,491
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    I still have my little black book of campsite contacts that I have used and added to down the years. Quite a few ex CLs are still operating in a different guise nowadays, and despite not being in the handbook, I still have details.