OWNERS of caravans and lodges on a holiday park near Looe will be able to return next month, says the site owner.

The Cornish Times reported previously that some residents of Oaklands Park feared being made homeless after being told they would have to leave the park as usual for the month of February.

Many had wanted to stay on site because of the risks of the coronavirus pandemic, the difficulty in securing alternative accommodation due to the restrictions, and for some, the long journey to a different part of the country with higher rates of infection.

Cornwall Councillors Edwina Hannaford and Armand Toms intervened on behalf of around 30 people who were vulnerable or elderly, but while the local authority said it would not enforce the site planning permission, the owner Rachel Nation did not agree to keeping the park open.

She said that there was important electrical installation work set to take place in February.

Local holiday parks nearby provided a place for some people to stay, and Cornwall Council offered assistance to others.

This weekend, the final people to leave the site were packing up in the rain as the barriers were being erected at the entrances to the park.

One said that he and his wife, a nurse at Derriford, had only managed to secure an alternative place to stay two days before.

“I think it’s morally wrong. I think the lady who owns the park could have met us halfway,” he said.

“People don’t need to be moving at a time like this. I know it is in our contracts. But COVID is killing people. I have had it myself, it is not pretty, it is not like the flu.”

Another woman, who stays in a caravan at Oaklands Park with her elderly father, said they were fortunate to be able to go to accommodation which had been booked months before.

She said she had hoped the electrical work planned at the site could have been done in a different month.

Concerned

“I think under the circumstances the park has been out of order. Fortunately my dad has just had his first vaccination. But it is unfair. There are a lot of people on here who haven’t found anywhere, who would be relying on going to another park which equally could be in the same boat and shut anyway.”

A third person said that “nobody was happy about having to leave” but that people had felt concerned about staying with no electricity. One man, who has carers attending him several times a day, had made a journey to Oxfordshire, they said.

Managing director Rachel Nation said: “We will reopen Oaklands Park on March 1, 2021, and remove the security fencing so owners can return if they are in the local area. However, we are not encouraging any owners to travel from further away due to the pandemic. I feel that this issue has been blown out of all proportion by a very small minority of owners.

“There are 155 owners on the park, and maybe half a dozen to a dozen people who aren’t happy about leaving.

“Shifting the electrical work to another month is not as easy as people seem to think. Say we were to close in April, that would upset those owners that might want to come and use the site in April.

“I’ve got the whole business to think about. The electrical work is for the safety of the park. I’m not going to let a few people with the loudest voices bully me into doing something that wouldn’t be right for all 155 owners.”

Ms Nation told the Cornish Times that she had spoken with the electricians about the possibility of arranging the work so that the most vulnerable people could stay on site but that it “wouldn’t be practical or possible to shut the electricity off just part of the time”.

A letter from Cornwall Council, which Ms Nation said had been sent to all owners on the park, set out the situation in detail, offering assistance to those who were experiencing problems and stating that the local authority had no way to oblige the park to remain open.

“It is my hope that we can all move on positively from this,” she said, “and we look forward to welcoming our owners back for the new season when we re-open.”