Holidaymakers let down by Doniford caravan park closure (From This is The West Country)

Holidaymakers let down by Doniford caravan park closure

9:00am Friday 25th May 2012 in News By Hannah Green

HOLIDAYMAKERS have been left in the lurch after new ownership at a caravan park in Doniford saw trips cancelled with little or no notice.

Sunnybank Holiday Park was sold by Darwin Holidays to Birch’s Park Homes on May 11, but an agreement between the companies to honour any holidays which had already been booked fell through after staff at the site resigned.

But for some visitors, the first they knew of any problems was a notice on the reception door reading ‘Due to unforeseen circumstances, Sunnybank is not able to accept any holiday arrivals. We are very sorry. Every holiday will be given a full refund’.

Peter Barbaruk from Wiltshire, who was one of those affected, said: “An hour before we were leaving we had a phone call from someone to say the holiday was cancelled.

“We have since been told we will be receiving a refund and alth-ough we have received nothing yet, we expect to do so.

“We like the area but we are disgusted by how we were treated.

“It is not great for tourism at all.”

Jacqui Olive of Darwin Holidays said: “Darwin has now agreed with the new owners that it will contact all those with future holidays booked and will offer them the opportunity to rebook at another of its parks or receive a full refund.

“We are in the process of contacting all the holidaymakers and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Charles Birch, a director at the newly-formed Sunnybank Ltd, an offshoot of Birch’s Park Homes, said problems had arisen after the unexpected resignation of the members of staff who dealt with bookings and cleaning at the site.

He said they resigned 24 hours before the completion of the sale at 6pm on May 11 so there was no-one to receive visitors.

The new company plans to let caravans on the site out to permanent residents rather than short-term holidaymakers.