A pensioner’s family claims he was “forced off” the caravan site that his family have been using for more than 50 years as he could not afford the new caravan to park on it.
David Capper said his 80-year-old father was told he had just four weeks to purchase a brand new caravan at the Shanlieve Holiday Park in Kilkeel or his caravan would have to be removed.
The vehicle was deemed too old to be on the site, according to new rules imposed for holidaymakers or home owners parking up there.
His father was devastated, he said, not being in a position to fork out the £30,000 or more for a new caravan and facing losing the site he’d enjoyed for 51 years.
David said he was “disgusted” someone who has been loyal to the site for so long would be given such an ultimatum.
His father had spent a lot of money investing in the caravan and keeping it up to date, David said, but most importantly it holds a lot of sentimental value to him with memories of family holidays and spending time with his late wife.
"I really cannot believe the way that my father has been treated by this caravan park after going there for 51 years and being such a loyal customer,” David told Belfast Live.
"He was given around four weeks' notice that he would have to buy a new caravan, which would be £30,000 or more, or he would have to have his caravan removed from the site altogether.
“All they said was that the park would give him a £1,000 discount off of the cost of a new one for his old one.
"For someone of my father's age to be asked to come up with that sort of money on short notice is ridiculous, although it would be the same no matter what age that you are.
"He has been left very upset by it all. That caravan is somewhere that our family grew up at, we would spend entire summers there and the memories and sentimental value that it has for my father is beyond measure. It was somewhere he had memories of our mother and now all of those are gone."
David said that there were dozens of owners at the holiday park who had been told the same thing as his father.
He believed it was a problem affecting owners across Northern Ireland.
"It is not just Shanlieve that is doing this to owners, it is happening across Northern Ireland and it is ruining people's lives who have invested thousands into these caravans,” he said.
Earlier this year, a group of 106 fuming caravan owners at Kingfisher Caravan Park on the Lincolnshire Coast announced they were taking East Lindsey District Council to court over the decision to boot out any caravans that were more than 20 years old.
The group claims the council informed residents on the Ingoldmells site in October 2019 of a change in the contract that meant caravans 20 years or older could not be there, YorkshireLive reports.
After the deadline was initially pushed back for vans to be removed from the site, mainly due to the coronavirus-1>coronavirus pandemic, the group now say they have until the end of the year to move them.
However, after failed attempts at mediation the caravan owners say that they have no choice but to take the council to court over the decision.
David said that "due to the pandemic and more people wanting to staycation a lot of holiday park owners have become greedy and are pushing people out so that others will buy new expensive ones.
“But in a year or two when people are going back to holidays abroad they will struggle because the previous loyal owners will want nothing to do with them.
"Something needs to be done soon to ensure that caravan owners have more rights because at the moment their circumstances seem to be able to change at the whim of a site owner."
Milne Holiday Parks, who run Shanlieve Holiday Park, have been contacted for comment but not responded at the time of publication.
