Your best bet is to approach the Camping and Caravanning Club and/or the Caravan Club with your question. Also, take a look at the blogs I link to, I think one of those is run by an ‘all year round’ caravanner. Good luck.

Must have been a myth but back in my youth we thought the quickest way to get drunk was to drink beer through a straw. Never actually tried it, but, does it work?

You are correction in your assumption that there were a couple of things which I was concerned about in your review and I’d just like to take this opportunity to set the record straight or at least put my point of view forward.

Before tackling those issues I’d like to thank you for your input regarding the Park rules. More than half of these rules relate to the buying, selling & ownership of a static caravan and form part of the welcome pack given to all prospective caravan owners and therefore have no relevance and are of no benefit to occasional visitors. Truthfully I never gave this a thought when I put a copy of the welcome pack in the caravan until I read your comments although, in my defence, there was a relevant abridged version relating to issues other than static caravan ownership on the wall to the left of the door. My intention with the welcome pack is to ensure that visitors have the necessary information (phone numbers, location of fire points etc) to hand in case of emergency. I have now rectified this situation and removed the rules from the welcome pack and I will ensure that, in future, visitor’s are made aware of the abridged version of the rules by the door when I take them to the caravan.

With regard your comments in relation to the CCTV cameras which seem to have implied “an air of suspicion” I can assure you that this was never the intention and I’m sorry that they conveyed this impression. There are four cameras on the Park which were installed a few years ago as a result of visits and advice given by our local community police officer. It was deemed to be good advice given the relative, rural, isolated location of the Park. One camera covers the house, one covers the “outer” reception door (which is open all year round), one covers the heating oil tank located at the side of the house adjacent to the lane and one covers the approach to the bottled gas cage; all of which were identified as being “vulnerable”. The cameras are not used to spy on people or intrude into their lives, they are simply intended as a “visual deterrent” and (touch wood!) so far so good. Surely it’s better to be safe than sorry?

The other thing that bothered me was your comment about a sense of community being absent from the park. Put simply, this is not the case at all. Other on line reviewers have gone out of their way to mention and praise the communal atmosphere on the Park and how refreshing they found it. It’s a pity that the clubhouse wasn’t open during your stay, perhaps that would have changed your opinion but it’s simply not economically viable to open it during the week when the Park is relatively quiet. After a recent semi-serious operation I was truly overwhelmed by the number of cards, texts, phone calls, e.mails, good wishes and offers of help which I received from people on the park, truthfully they are a really nice group of people and it’s a shame that this appears not to have been conveyed when you were on the Park.

We realise that we can’t please all of the people all of the time, but then, who can? But I’d like to think that we please most of the people most of the time as that’s what we aim towards.

I do hope that I’ve not taken up too much room on your web site with my reply and hope that this brings things to a close. I respect your right to air your opinions in the public domain as others have done before you and will continue to do after you.
I think that really it boils down to one element and that is, as you say, this simply wasn’t the right type of park for your requirements.

On a lighter note, I sincerely hope that you “have turned the corner” and are having a better year than 2011.

All the best and happy touring

Paul

Clearly you feel a little aggrieved by this and other posts I’ve done related to your site.

Having just reread each post again to see why, I’m afraid I can’t see what the issue is. Each post is generally complementary to your park and our experience during our stay there.

Please don’t feel we were ungrateful about having a ‘free stay’ (a point I note you were keen to emphasize), that was not our intention with these posts and anything that is free and worthwhile, such as a weekend break on a site like yours, is always appreciated.

However as with all other posts on this blog relating to every other site we’ve stayed at, we say how we experience things at the time. The price of the caravan site (or not, as in our stay on your site), has nothing to do with what we may feel or perceive things.

Where we have been slightly critical in our scribblings, is simply our personal perception from people who are used to staying at busy touring caravan sites or on rallies where there’s always some activity going on or the sense of community is very strong – this is particularly true with respect to rallies. Staying on a site like yours is clearly a different experience and one we felt the need to offer an opinion about.

So at the end of the day it boils down to two elements:

would we recommend your site to anyone looking to pitch at your site – of course we would. It’s just in the case, it’s not the type of site for us

and

did we enjoy our stay there? Yes we did and we appreciate the gift.

For the benefit of anyone who chooses to read this review of Rimington Caravan Park and some of the comments contained therein, I would just like to take this opportunity to mention something which I think is important to bear in mind.

Prior to the visit, I was made aware by someone who has a tourer sited on the Park of the “Absolutely awful year” which this couple had endured culminating in the dreadful and deplorable arson attack which destroyed both their car and caravan. The plan was to invite their friends to the Park for a surprise short break in the “Warden’s caravan” which is occasionally rented out, in order to “cheer them up”.

Having listened to the story, I had a great deal of sympathy for their plight and subsequently brought the matter to the attention of one of the owners who was similarly moved by the story. As a direct result of this, they were offered the use of the caravan for a mid week break FREE OF CHARGE…..how many other Parks would have done that?

Still you live and learn I suppose.

(Pb)