Holidaymakers refuse to leave €7m caravan park as deadline passes

HOLIDAYMAKERS are expected to ignore today’s deadline to vacate a caravan park that is shortly due to be placed on the market.

The management of Power’s Caravan Park in Duffcarrick, Ardmore, Co Waterford, told their 166 clients earlier this year that they wanted them out by today, June 6, as the facility would be put up for sale.

The site is expected sell for around €7 million.

However, most residents, it is understood, are planning to ignore today’s deadline. Although the facility has been closed this season, most of its summertime residents have left personal effects in their caravans.

It is further understood that 125 of the 166 residents have expressed an interest in forming a consortium to bid for the caravan park when it comes on the market.

Each member would have to contribute up to €60,000 to match the asking price, plus taxes.

Last year, the residents paid €1,250 each to rent a pitch on the site.

Caravan park owners Thomas and John Power said earlier this year they were putting the facility on the market because it was no longer financially viable, insisting they had no option but to close it down.

Their decision follows a long-running planning saga over major renewal works carried out at the site in recent years without planning permission.

The works included the installation of service roads, public lighting, water supply and sewage works.

Waterford County Council granted the Powers permission to retain the works in April 2006, dependent on the brothers paying a development contribution in the region of €141,000, towards upgrading Ardmore’s public water and sewage treatment plant.

The Powers appealed this to An Bord Pleanála, which ruled earlier this year that the brothers did not have to pay the €141,000 sought by the council, and recommended that the parties enter into further negotiations on an agreed level of development charges.

It is understood that those negotiations took place but the parties failed to reach agreement.

The Powers have stated that, following the board decision and consultation with their tax advisers, legal team, accountants and engineers, it was decided that the cost of keeping the park open is prohibitive.

Residents, meanwhile, are understood to be willing to foot a major hike in their annual rents to save the caravan park.

The Powers wrote to their clients in January saying they would not be in a position to accept renewals for this year’s holiday season pending the outcome of the board’s decision, which was deferred several times.

At the time, Thomas Power assured clients that closing the caravan park was not being considered.

The Powers took over the running of the caravan park from their parents, Richard, and the late Brigid, in the late 1990s. A caravan park has operated on the site since the 1950s.