New Lambs

The final lambs arrived last weekend and we now have 24 lambs jumping around the garden.

This should mean that Spring has arrived, but unfortunately it has been very wet and windy this week with rough seas. I walked along the beach this evening and I was surprised with the number of walkers enjoying the ‘fresh’ air and the views of the waves crashing on the beach.

This evening I watched the Parliamentary adjournment debate on the proposed VAT on Caravan Holiday Homes and I was very pleased to see the number of MPs from all sides making many good points against the proposal. The consultation period has been extended and hopefully the Treasury will be reviewing its calculations and the cost benefit analysis.

The whole industry is working together to try and show the government how the proposed VAT will have an adverse economic impact and hopefully someone is listening – good coverage on TV

Looking forward to the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend when hopefully we will have plenty of sunshine.

Good news and Bad news….

I am sorry that it has been a few days since I last wrote a few lines in my blog – over a month!!

I seem to always give the excuse that I have been busy but it is really true on this occasion

Shortly after completing the entry on 18 March, I left for the EFCO meeting in Helsinki which proved to be a very good general assembly and afterwards we had a very enjoyable couple of days off in Finland including a day trip to Tallinn in Estonia. The meeting covered many interesting topics including the proposed European Quality Label which is curently entering its consultation stage.

During the second day of the EFCO meeting we heard the bad news about the Chancellors budget speech and his proposal to introduce VAT on static caravan holiday homes. The industry has been slowly adjusting to the impacts of the recession and now we have to deal with a potential 30% drop in demand for new homes – a major worry for parks through the UK and the people of Hull and East Yorkshire where the majority of Caravans are manufactured – this link explains more http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17769636

On the bright side the photo shows that we have eventually managed to open our coffee area in the Highlands End Shop and the spectacular view is already proving to be very popular.

Early in April I attended a meeting to hear all about the Localism Act and how it will affect local decisions and during the same week I had the opportunity to show our local Councillors around Highlands End to explain our proposals to extend the park into a small area adjacent to the golf course which will enable us to have larger and more comforable hire caravans….I am pleased to say that the Council decided that they had no objections to the plan and there main concern was the idea to stay open all year round which we have noted and will look at.

Lots more has happened which I must skip over for now ……… I must try to have more regular and shorter entries…..

Parks Open

The parks opened last friday and we are rapidly settling down into the various routines. Many of the Caravan Holiday Home Owners are down and several of our regular touring caravans visitors have turned up on the first weekend – we served over 100 meals in the bar last night and we have 150 booked for sunday lunch to celebrate mothers day so with the sun shining and the rain staying away we are really up and running.

The refurbished and renamed shop – ‘The Cowshed’ has partially opened and the main extension providing a coffee shop will be ready for May. I am sure our visitors will love the amazing view across to Thorncombe Beacon while enjoying a cup of coffee.

We have advised all the owners at Golden Cap about the planning application which was submitted last week to re-organise some parts of the park and includes an new Indoor Swimming Pool and Restaurant. I am giving a presentation about the proposals to Chideock Parish Council on Monday morning and hopefully some of the local residents will come along. So far everyone who I have spoken to have been positive…….. the response of the local councillors tomorrow will be interesting. 

Immediately after the meeting I have to leave for London and then Helsinki for a meeting of the European Association – so busy week ahead

Getting ready for summer

Crowds gathered at West Bay last Sunday to watch the diggers and trucks clearing the harbour ready for the summer season. You fully appreciate the power of the sea with the diggers taking days to remove the material which the sea could move over one night. It is an annual event to ensure that boats can use the harbour and it indicates that winter is nearly over.

I have been very busy over the last few days with the parks getting ready to open this friday – 16 March – over the weekend I walked around the parks and started to make the final checks for the big day.

We have advised all our owners about the two most exciting planning applications we have submitted for at least 20 years. At Highlands End we are applying to reorganise the Caravan Holiday Homes for hire which includes moving some of the homes into an additional area next to the Golf Course and at Golden Cap are asking for permission to build an indoor swimming, bar and restaurant with some re-organisation of the caravans on the parks. Over the next few weeks, I will give you more information.

Last week I attended an excellent event in London with People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, passenger transport, travel and tourism in the UK, and I was very impressed by the  six key project streams, which aim to raise the skills of the hospitality sector’s workforce and its profile and reputation as a professional career choice. If you know of anyone who is looking to hospitality as a career, please mention the People 1st website.

The next morning I travelled to Paris for the EFCO Management Meeting and returned on friday evening with minutes to spare to join Vanessa at the Henry Smith Ball. We help to sponsor the ball which over the last 20 years has raised a considerable amount of money for local charities with Henry raising most of the money for transplant support charities having had a heart transplant himself over 20 years ago.

As soon as the parks are open I have to leave for the EFCO General Meeting in Helsinki which will be my last major commitment away from the park until the autumn.

Conference

Last week we attended the annual conference of our Association – the British Holiday & Home Parks Association 

With over 500 delegates in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre near the Houses of Parliament was very well supported and we came away with some new ideas and with the added benefit of a couple of days chatting with our colleagues about the economic climate and the many issues surrounding the running of holiday parks.

I was asked to speak about our experiences with the customer feedback system launched by the BH&HPA during 2010 and I was happy to share our experiences with the delegates. I hope my presentation will encourage more parks to join which I believe will enable us all to raise our standards and quality to benefit our customers. Over 400 parks took part in 2011 and we would like to see this double in 2012 so that we have a wide range of responses and comments.

We have gained a lot of information and guidance from the comments made by our customers and although we accept that it is impossible to ‘please all the people all the time’ we hope to improve our service so that we can ‘please nearly all of the people all the time’. We have already changed some of our practices and routines and over the winter we have looked at several options in response to customer suggestions.

The conference finished with a very inspirational speech by Ben Fogle, Transatlantic rower and Adventurer, which has set us up for the challenges of 2012 with the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics

Foundation Degree – third course starts this week…….

We were very proud to host the first week of the Foundation Degree in Tourism Park Management this week. The third group of students are starting on the first year of the four year course and the first group are completing their final year with the graduation cermony in this autumn.

I first became involved in the work to bring training courses to the holiday park industry in 1985 when basic courses were held at Evesham College and the seeds were sown for the Caravan Industry Training Organisation.

I have given limited help from time to time over the last 20 years, but many others in the industry have given a considerable amount of time to create and develop the courses. I am to see how training is now embedded into our industry with a wide range of courses including technical skills,  NVQ2 and 3 in Caravan Park Operations and the Foundation Degree. Over 1000 students have completed the NVQ 2.

During the second day of the Degree course, I gave a brief overview of our parks with a tour around the park which provided the students with a break from the classroom. I wish all the Degree Students every success over the next 4 years.

PV display up and working

Our new PV panels on the Swimming Pool roof are working well even with the limited amount of sun this time of year. We now have a very clear display which shows the real time power, the total generated energy and the CO2 saved.

I took this photo early in the morning when the sun was weak and it was still generating 1.6kw ………and the total since September is already more than 2,000kwh. I believe our target for 12 months is over 20,000kwh – so we need the sunshine.

Destination Dorset – no more meetings…

Early in the week I attended a Board meeting of Destination Dorset and the only item on the Agenda was to decide whether the public/private organistion could continue. The decision was taken to let the organisation ‘sleep’ until an opportunity requiring a public/private tourism partnership or DMO is identified and agreed.

For the last 4 years we have been trying to find a way forward to create a single voice for Dorset tourism to make it easier for visitors to the area and for the trade – however, with the differences between the local authorities and the lack of co-ordination the private sector the necessary leadership could not be found.

The local authories will continue offering advertising packages to tourism busineses in their respective district council areas and working in partnership with each other for the benefit of Dorset where appropriate – one of the main benefits being www.visit-dorset.com

I am disappointed with the decision but I am happy and relieved that it has been taken. We were wasting so much time and it may now be possible for individuals invovled in tourism in the private sector to have time to look at other ways to promote and expand the visitor economy which is so important to Dorset.

First week of January

We started the first week of the New Year with a brisk walk up to the top of Golden Cap. It was a beautiful New Years Day Bank Holiday and what a reminder of how lucky we are to live here. The sun was out and the sky was clear – a fantastic way to finish the Xmas holidays

We all returned to work on 3 January and the weather immediately changed with severe storms resulting in some minor damage on the parks and in particular a couple trees had to be quickly sorted out to avoid further problems.

Regardless of the weather, the team are now on the countdown to the parks opening on 16 March and we are moving from job to job to ensure we get the most out of each day either working inside or outside depending on the rain……..it is another reminder that it is impossible to do all our work when the parks are closed and to keep up with our investment in new services and improvements to the parks we have to work when we are open and try to balance the noise and impact of workers with the peace and quiet expected by our visitors………

The office work never seems to stop and we are currently undertaking a complete review of our H&S policies and all the related isses. The Prime Minister should come and look at the amount of paperwork we have to generated in a relatively small business and he would understand the need to try and slow down the H&S red tape and endless checklists – surely it would help if the ‘ambulance chasing’ solicitors were slowed down by capping the fees so that they only pursue genuine cases.

On the more positive side we are pushing forward with the routine decoration of the bar and the swimming pool, the new boilers are arriving for the toilet block at Golden Cap next week and the partial refurbishment of one of the blocks at Highlands End is underway – plus numerous minor jobs…..however, we are encouraged by the number of telephone calls picking up and bookings starting to come in. Next week I plan to finish our staffing review and we will start to advertise for additional permanent and temporary staff.

Back to work today…….then watched the sun going down on 2011

I have been back in the office today to take advantage of being by myself for a few hours to think clearly and prepare various papers.

For many reasons 2012 will be a significant year for us and I am working on a number of projects.

We have clearly identify some areas for improvement from the feedback received from our customers  and my target is to improve our customer ratings and at the same time work with the BH&HPA to encourage more parks to participate – which will probably mean that with many excellent parks joining the scheme I will be making it harder for us!!

Secondly, we are finalising some interesting plans for the parks and hopefully we will be given the opportunity to investing in the quality of our facilities and services to play our part in the recovery of the Dorset economy which is so dependent on tourism – more updates over next few months……..

My sister watched the sun going down on the NZ south island and send me a text describing the awesome sky with a ‘mass of pink, orange and red clouds lapping the sea and mountains’ ….. so I thought it would be a good idea to take a photo of our sunset over Eype; not so awesome this evening with a grey sky, but a good reminder of all the excellent sunsets during 2011 and to look forward and wish for some wonderful sunsets during 2012………Happy New Year