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.
