THREE REASONS TO ACT STRATEGICALLY TO ENSURE HOLIDAY PARK FIRE SAFETY
Fire constitutes one of the biggest risks to the total loss of a park home, and with many sites often at lower capacity or closed during off-season, upgrading site safety and efficiency should be a top priority for site managers. Tom Ambler, sales manager for leisure at Ramtech, shares the three reasons to consider more strategic site safety management, as sites reopen for the busy spring/summer season.
Safeguard parks and people
Winter and spring is the ideal time to review a site and prepare it for the busier Easter and summer period. This should vitally include fire safety standards - as once peak season is here and the warmer weather attracts more visitors, the heat, coupled with popular campsite activities such as fires and barbecues, can be a real melting pot in terms of park accidents.
Recent fire reports provide a stark warning to site owners, including how fire crews battled a large blaze at a Dorset holiday park, showcasing the chaos that fire can wreak. Fortunately, no more than property damage was the outcome on this occasion, but investing in the appropriate safety measures ahead of time, can help to reduce fire risk and help to stop a blaze quickly with the right detection in place.
Preparing a site in advance of opening, by checking that the current fire safety system is working, is advisable. Any faulty wiring or machinery - particularly relating to power generators for homes or common buildings - as well as the threat of arson and vandalism should be front of mind all year around.
Meet regulations with confidence
Currently, holiday park site owners have a legal obligation to manage fire safety under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (“the FSO”). The act applies to all non-domestic premises including certain types of parks, such as those with common areas in leisure complexes, restaurants and guest houses. With park residents often mingling in these types of campsite community buildings, the threat to human life is very real.
Just a few years ago, there was an incident at a leisure facility on a campsite near Newquay, which resulted in extensive damage to several communal buildings including a swimming pool, sauna and gym. So, not only is protecting against fire a requirement under the FSO, it is also vitally important to avoid the financial implications, which can be huge. A fire forces site owners into a massive rebuild operation, potentially putting them out of action for a season for more.
A system, like Ramtech’s WES3, places the power in site owners’ hands. It’s an EN54-25 compliant connected device, that can be deployed at various points across holiday parks on stands. It acts as an emergency response system, with automatic smoke and heat detectors responding to site incidents and maintaining 24/7 coverage through the CONNECT unit, otherwise known as the brains of the system.
The WES3 is also IP55 rated, which means they are suitable for outdoor areas and won’t be affected by varying weather conditions. What’s more, the CONNECT system ensures off-site notifications can also be enabled, informing site owners and even alerting emergency authorities.
Get real time data to protect and improve your park
While sites must ensure that fire safety is robust, other park management features that support the efficient and daily running of the park, are also welcome. This is where technology has evolved to help answer these added value requirements at the same time as emergency response needs.
WiSE, for instance, is a reliable business information and monitoring platform providing real time alerts, data and information about security coverage. For holiday park operators, WiSE can also extend your existing security and fire system coverage, reducing the complexity and cost of enhancing your risk management systems.
The WiSE wireless security solution gives you peace of mind that your holiday park business and on-park properties are being securely monitored 24/7. Powered by long-life batteries and connected to a reliable radio technology, the system allows thousands of devices to be linked to a central base station that creates an instant alert via email, text or pager. WiSE is not dependent on SIM or WiFi to function, which is great for sites with little or no data or internet coverage.
For more information on how Ramtech’s solutions can help protect holiday park sites, visit https://ramtechglobal.com/
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Christmas Switch On
grounds in the heart of the Lincolnshire Wolds. Tranquil and scenic, the surrounding countryside is full of outstanding natural beauty and wildlife, and is popular with walkers, cyclists and bird watchers. The Roman town of Caistor is situated just a couple of miles away and provides many visitor attractions, shops, restaurants, fishing, and a choice of golf courses. Bill originally bought the site as a holiday lodge park 15 years ago but decided to apply for planning permission for a change of use to residential after repeated requests from customers wanting permanent homes. “It took over a year to get the planning permission in place,” explains Bill. “Our original application was refused and following a visit by the Secretary of State, and a number of agreed conditions, we were granted the licence.”
minibus service to Caistor (one of the conditions of the planning permission) for residents. “We have a large site here but have deliberately chosen not to cram in as many homes as possible,” says Bill. “We have permission for 60 homes but the land could easily take 100 or more. We wanted to retain a feeling of space and privacy. On a lot of parks the homes are laid out in rows, which feels like an army camp! Our plots are twice the size of those at most other parks and dotted around the parkland in a freeform and natural way.” Out of the 60 homes, 25 are already inhabited, and the remaining 35 pitches are available for sale, including five show homes.
“We are very lucky to have a steady stream of enquiries,” says Bill, “but the attractiveness of the park really sells itself. Each home has a block-paved driveway for two cars and many have sheds, decking and even garages. Visitors to the park are always surprised at the size of the properties saying they are larger and better equipped than their traditional brick-built bungalows. All homes on site are also set up for mains utilities, which puts the control back into the resident’s hands and helps keep their expenditure low. This way is more economical for the home owner and the park owner too.” Having pre-booked slots with the major manufacturers is a key selling point, which expedites the process for buyer and seller. “There can be as much as a year long wait on many parks,” explains Bill, “but we have moved a cash buyer in as little as six weeks from home order before now. On average, from point of deposit to moving in date is two to three months for most of our residents.” Greens’ second park is Pine Hill, situated in a pretty location in open countryside between St Ives and Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.
Anglian area and Bill says that they are always looking for interesting opportunities to either invest in existing parks, or land that is ripe for housing development. Like most Park Operators, Bill expresses some frustration with the limitations of the current planning framework and legislation. “The parks industry is steadily being cleaned up and rogue operators are thankfully few and far between nowadays,” says Bill, “but the negative profile of parks in the public eye still needs some work.” “Sadly, it’s a lot easier to get permission to develop holiday parks with many unwitting customers buying ‘holiday homes’, mistakenly thinking that they can live in them all year round. Making it more difficult to open residential parks, means not only a shortage of homes for the 50+, but prevents the mainstream housing market freeing up larger ‘brick and mortar homes’ for families and younger people. Things are moving forwards, slowly, but there is still a long way to go,” adds Bill.