On a recent trip to Toronto Canada David Mooney ( Director of Sunset & Hambleton Country Park) truly went to the Edge and back for charity. Sponsored by local residents of Sunset & Hambleton Country Park he raised over £700. The Edge Walk is a 150 metre walk around the outside of the CN tower with no handrails and is 1,200 ft above ground two and half times higher than Blackpool tower.  He said” it was the most frightening thing I have ever done in my life. Also on jubilee weekend   our residents raised another £1,425 from a street party and gala days. In such hard times it is a pleasure to work with such a caring community.”

Pictured  L—R  David Mooney, Norma Phipps, Kath Baron (Main fund raisers) and Lisa Martin (Trinity)

Sunset Park was highly commended at the recent BIBAs (Be Inspired Business Awards) awards ceremony. In the category for “Green Business of the Year”, we reached the finals based around the environmental considerations we addressed in the development of Green Meadows II.

Sunset Park was in the final of the England for Excellence Awards, receiving a Highly Commended Award for being in the top five caravan parks in the country. Pictured from left to right: Mike & Sandy Taylor, Chris & Dave Mooney.

SIGN THE E-PETITION TO HELP STOP 20% VAT ON CARAVAN HOLIDAY HOMES

 Sign the petition here: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32781?dm_i=WP7,RZ5X,4I2LEN,29Q85,1

See the BBC report here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17769636?dm_i=WP7,S01T,4I2LEN,29SNM,1

We ask for your support for the Caravan Industry over the decision made, without any Industry consultation whatsoever, to put VAT onto the sale of holiday caravans. 

It is very clear that the Government has no idea of the size of the Caravan Holiday Home Industry and its supply chain of businesses that will be affected should this increase take effect.  It is also clear that it has no idea of what caravan holiday homes actually are!  Unlike touring caravans, caravan holiday homes are second homes, just like their bricks and mortar counterparts of cottages and lodges are.  They don’t move, they aren’t towed behind a car.    They are sited on a holiday park with all services and used just as a cottage in the Lakes or Cotswolds would be by families as a second home.

A forecast is given that ‘a fall in demand of about 30% if the VAT is passed onto the customer’.  Despite this, HMRC, states the ‘overall macroeconomic impacts are expected to be negligible’.  HMRC anticipates ‘up to around 750 manufacturers, retailers and holiday parks selling static caravans will be affected by this measure’.  Just to prove how ‘out of touch’ HMRC is, just one of the Industry associations, British Holiday & Home Park Association, shows their members manage 1,156 businesses selling holiday caravans onto 1,627 parks.  Since BH&HPA membership comprises only 75% of the Industry total, this would imply the measure would impact over 1,500 holiday park businesses with over 2,150 holiday parks selling holiday caravans across the UK.  In addition, jobs within some 500 BRITISH businesses in the Industry’s supply chain would also be jeopardised by the measure, for example distributors, manufacturers of supply parts, etc., when sales come to a screeching halt with the prices becoming not affordable to so many of the potential buyers.

Regarding the local communities of the holiday parks that would be affected, independent economic research shows the direct and indirect spend for each 15 holiday caravan pitches supports one Full time Employment Equivalent job.  There is direct employment on the parks in addition to jobs and businesses sustained indirectly by parks and parks’ customer spend.  Rural and coastal businesses are often sustained by the parks and their customers; local pubs, plumbers, restaurants, tourist attractions, village shops, etc.  If you follow the research through, that means that one full time job will be lost for every 15 vacant, unsold holiday caravans.

This Government is supposed to be trying to make it easier for businesses to invest and create jobs to stimulate the economy.   This is not one of the ways to do it!   It is hard enough to generate sales in the current economy and keep parks running stimulating local businesses without adding 20% across the board to the cost of the product.   It will put a good many of our customers out of our marketplace.  It is also just plain unfair to lob VAT on caravan holiday homes which are second homes to families vs other forms of second homes made from bricks, stone, wood, or other materials which do not attract  VAT.  Whatever the Government projects it may receive from applying VAT to holiday caravans surely cannot justify the strain it will put on an already struggling industry and its supply chain.

Please sign the e-petition to help STOP 20% VATon the sale of caravan holiday homes!

Thank you.

Sandy & Michael Taylor of Sunset Park, Hambleton, Lancashire were presented with their “Gold David Bellamy Conservation Award” by the man himself, David Bellamy, during a British Holiday & Home Park Association ceremony held in London.  This is the 7^th consecutive year Sunset has been given a Bellamy Gold Award.  The award recognises the work they’ve done to protect and improve Britain’s natural environment at Sunset Park.

Already a multiple award winning park, the team at Sunset Park have created an environment that has enhanced features of nature such as well stocked and managed lakes with grass surrounds that attract wildlife, modern well insulated caravan holiday homes in attractive layouts with all services underground, surrounded by the results their ongoing landscape and planting scheme of hundreds of trees and shrubs offering both screening, wildlife inhabitants and visual pleasure.   Add to this their solar heating of the swimming pool and energy management programme and Sunset ticked all the boxes for the Bellamy Gold Award.
Sunset Park is also the current Gold winner of Lancashire & Blackpool Tourism’s  “Caravan Holiday Park/Holiday Village Award 2011/12”.Lifestyle is what it is all about at Sunset Park. Creating an aesthetically pleasing blend of man and nature for holiday makers to enjoy a quality of life with nature at their doorstep is what Sunset does well!  The emphasis on quality in all that they do and offer makes the park stand out over their competitors and makes them winners.

As Chairman, Michael Taylor says, “Satisfied customers are the best form of marketing!  Our customers have quality at home. They want no less when they come to us. We reinvested in the good times improving our park & its facilities which is seeing us in good stead in the current climate.”

Sunset Park is a rural country park but offers enough family entertainment on the park to please customers without losing their ‘country qualities’. A scale steam locomotive, the Hambleton Rio Grande, is a unique attraction to visitors. Choose one of their quality homes set in peaceful, country surroundings with scenery to fit your every mood on your doorstep.

Everything you need to escape!

Over 30,000 visitors to the Caravan & Motorhome Show held at Event City, Manchester, the new venue by the Trafford Centre, saw the Sunset Park stand featured on the Victory Leisure Home display.  Held over 4 days the visitors were amazed at the quality of the Victory lodge that is available on a Lakeside plot in Sunset Park’s latest development, Green Meadows II.

Pictured at the show on the Sunset stand are:  Sunset Park – Chris Mooney, Park Manager, David Mooney, Sales Diretor and Peter Nevitt, Managing Director of Victory Leisure Homes.