Christine Chapman AM

Chair, Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee,

National Assembly for Wales

Dear Ms Chapman,

I am the owner of Hampton Court Holiday Park in Pembrokeshire.  This is a holiday park with 20 static holiday pitches and newly developed 29 touring/camping pitches with a modern new shower block that will include two dedicated wetrooms with specialist equipment for disabled children and adults for which I had great support for from Angela Burns AM. I will be the first holiday park not just in Wales but in Britain to offer these facilities. I have spent my whole life in this industry and whole heartedly agree that change is needed to help protect the interests of hard working people who choose to spend their money in Wales and the UK by buying holiday homes and holidaying at Holiday Parks and also by protecting the good name of a compliant park like mine that has never had a complaint or bad mark/criticism from a customer or the local licensing authority.

But I would also like to ask for the same consideration to be given to the holiday park owner, especially the smaller ones like myself who may have onerous decisions made by the local authority with new powers that could jeopardise the income of a small park like mine in its ability to employ future staff.

The local authority has in recent times avoided regular checks on a lot of parks due to a lack of manpower and budget cuts, so I am concerned that this may be seen as way to increase authority revenue and also their expenses by creating them more work but at the cost (especially for a small park like mine) of the holiday industry and jobs.

I am somewhat fearful that overly keen new regulations and the ability to be able to impose large fines may be seen as a cash cow by the local authority and inadvertently cause my park to become so much more regulated that it will increase costs that could jeopardise future jobs and in turn revenue into the local economy. This will ultimately cause either costs to rise for the end user causing a spiral of costs on both fronts, or for a business to absorb these costs and become unsustainable and reduce re-investment which would start to damage the holiday park industry.

 I write in response to the consultation on the Holiday Caravan Sites (Wales) Bill. My trade association, BH&HPA has responded on behalf of all members and I endorse their evidence - on this link - to you.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Russ

Hampton Court Holiday Park