Touring Caravan Insurance

Morecambe and Lunesdale MP Geraldine Smith recently swapped the House of Commons for a caravan holiday park, Bolton Holmes Holiday Park near Carnforth. This was to coincide with ‘British Tourism Week’, led by the tourist boards of the UK, which boasts HRH the Prince of Wales as its patron.

Ms Smith met with a director of the Cumbrian family firm, Michael Holgate. The firm is behind the £4 million project which is going to bring together two existing caravan parks at Bolton le Sands.

At least 20 full-time jobs will be created, when the park opens fully sometime later this year.

Ms Smith heard that Bolton Holmes Holiday Park will cover 140 acres, and provide about 120 privately-owned caravan holiday homes. There will also be around 200 pitches for touring caravans and campers.

The park is to have extensive landscaping work, a number of conservation initiatives, and new roadways. This is in addition to a new bar and restaurant that will specialise in local foods.atives.

The MP said: “In areas such as rural Lancashire, tourism plays a vital role in supporting all types of businesses, from shops and pubs to visitor attractions.

Adding that, “in terms of helping employment, every two caravan holiday homes support one rural job according to Britain’s tourist boards.

Before concluding, “For this reason the investment in Bolton Holmes as a prestigious new park development for the area is to be applauded, and I wish the Holgate family every success.”

We wish you every success too.

Peter Mandelson, the Business Secretary has had a “positive” meeting with the National Caravan Council (NCC) to discuss the future of the industry. The meeting was also attended by John Prescott, and the Hull West and Hessle MP Alan Johnson.

The aim is to increase government support for the motorhome, caravan holiday home, and touring caravan industries during the financial downturn.

The NCC highlighted the financial contribution made by the industry to the UK economy. Including manufacture, tourism and insurance, this amount to £6 billion annually.

John Lally, Director-General of the NCC stated that the government “recognises that it is a difficult time for the UK caravan industry and that there are a number of challenges.”

He further said that the NCC “have been given the opportunity to work with government to explore collaboratively a range of measures to improve the situation for the industry.”

The NCC has asked the government for “constructive steps to be taken”.

We shall see.

This looks interesting. Bombay based artist Ashok Sukumaran has an exhibition title ‘The Neighbour’ running from March 9th to April 13th 2009 at the University of Westminster in London.

The exhibition looks at caravan culture during the 1970’s and 1980’s, and was commission by The Arts Catalyst, who explain the whole concept thus:

In The Neighbour, two ostensibly “mobile” habitats share space. One is a “static” mobile home from the late 1970’s, which developed as a way for lower-middle class families to partake in “caravan culture”, or escape longer term from the city and its property regimes. The second, coming from another direction in the same period, is a camper van, which follows gypsies and travellers in an attempt to produce the continuously nomadic home, built in the car factory.

These two objects, from the inside and out, ask us to inhabit questions about the contemporary “housing industry”, the overlaps in our landscapes of desire, of crisis, and the psychic dimensions of enclosure and spacing that have evolved not just among people, but also among competing machines, and their regulatory frameworks.

Sukurmaran himself describes it like this:

“The neighbour, neither friend nor enemy, is the one who may not be in your “network”, but is nevertheless in your world.”

I like the themes of the static and the mobile going on here. The intertwining of the permanent with the transient, to reflect on our society. And what a clever way to do it.

Here’s a bargain for you: 55 touring caravan and camping parks across the country are participating in Mail on Sunday offer of a pitch for 3 nights for just £2. These are available from Sun - Thurs from May 31 to July 2 inclusive.

The minimum stay is 3 nights, you get the first for free and the next two for £1 each. Electricity or entertainment passes are at an additional cost.

Bear in mind that not all dates will be available at all parks, so check before you book. Some parks may also allow you to extend the stay to the weekend.

Details of participating sites and a link to download the voucher can be found here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/hotel-sales