Battle of the caravanners

Apr 26 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal

ANGER has erupted in a Northumberland seaside village over roadside hoardings which urge owners to move their holiday homes to another community further up the coastline.

The four signs – which bear Northumberland County Council’s logo and have gone up around the large A189 roundabout on the approach to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea – encourage static caravan owners to relocate to Amble Links, 12 miles further north.

Newbiggin has two holiday parks of its own, at Sandy Bay and the village’s Church Point, and the advertising space has been taken by rival operator Park Leisure 2000, which runs the 650-home Amble Links caravan site.

Yesterday a Newbiggin councillor slammed the hoardings as ‘a blatant attempt to poach trade’ – and questioned why the county council has endorsed signs which pit one seaside community against another in the battle for holiday spending power.

Local historian and Wansbeck Lib Dem councillor Mike Kirkup said he was amazed to see the four signs on the main North Seaton roundabout which people use to access Newbiggin’s two holiday parks.

“I would ask what does the county council think it is doing, and which ill-advised official sanctioned the erection of advertising hoardings that can only pit community against community? This is blatant poaching at the expense of Newbiggin,” he said. “The two Newbiggin caravan parks are crucial to the local economy. Caravanners are a permanent feature during most of the summer months and Bank Holiday weekends, spending a lot of their holiday cash in Newbiggin’s shops, cafes and pubs.

“This money is a vital factor in the village economy. Are we to have a dog-eat-dog culture where only the strongest can survive?”

Miles Dewhurst, director of Park Leisure 2000 Northumberland, said the signs at the North Seaton roundabout were not a deliberate attempt to target holiday home owners in Newbiggin, but were part of a wider marketing campaign for the company’s Amble site.

“This roundabout is on the main road along the coastline in Northumberland, where people are looking to locate on to caravan parks such as ours.

“People don’t stay on a particular caravan site forever and this is something we do all over the country, as we have six parks from Cornwall to Amble. We have invested £8m in the Amble Links park in the last five years and we need to attract customers.”

Last night the county council said the signs had been put in place under a roundabout sponsorship scheme as part of a long-running contract with an Amble-based business.

A spokeswoman said: “It is not the role of the county council to police competition between businesses and we do not endorse or support the services offered on the adverts on roundabouts. When this advertising space became available, it was offered to any businesses and there was no local interest.’’