Caravan park closes

THE MUNICIPAL caravan park adjacent to Cecil Emmett Park has been closed “until further notice”. In all likelihood this will be for ever as a reflection of service delivery priority shifts.

At the end, the caravan park was a failed facility, draining municipal resources until such time as resources were no longer allocated to it. The two ablution blocks were systematically vandalised and pillaged, the “security” and management there being virtually useless to stop it.

Fixtures and fittings were repeatedly stolen (or broken), and the revenue from the very few visitors (word gets around among travelling and holidaying caravaners) and the few permanent residents, never covered the cost.

In the end too, the park resembled more a squatter camp than a holiday facility. The permanent residents erected all manner of temporary structures including chicken runs, giving the facility an air of degradation and squalor. Occasional overflows of sewerage from the upper part of town also plagued the park.

The closing of the caravan does perhaps create an opportunity for someone in the private sector establish a caravan park.