Chairman’s Report 19^th March ‘17

Welcome to you all and thank you for being here. As you know, every year, prior to this meeting, David and I meet with Martyn Fowler at head Office in Ilfracombe to hear his assessment of the past season and his plans for the business, particularly where they affect us, and of course, to bring your concerns to his attention.

As we discussed at the AGM, last season was a successful one overall, and though he refuses to predict how this season may go, advance bookings are already up on this time last year, meaning that hopefully, there is less requirement to offer special discounts to guarantee occupancy.

Many of the items including, pet income, WiFi, surcharge and future plans are covered elsewhere in this meeting. We were introduced to Martyn’s youngest son who is a tech wizard and is engaged in all the aspects behind getting WiFi to all parks as soon as the infrastructure is in place.

It was clear that the sale of Ilfracombe brought in a better price than anyone expected, with the result that Martyn has now taken Perran off the market. As he said, there is now no need to sell it at anything less than its true value. This also means that he is increasing his investment across the board.

What was more than clear is that in all his dealings with owners- any charges that are imposed- he is going out of his way to be FAIR. This applies to the dreaded surcharge, which we addressed at great length and which will be discussed later, as well as to the method adopted to charge for WiFi when it becomes available.

It is easy to criticise because not all our concerns are being addressed immediately but as I mentioned this time last year, it is a fact that Martyn’s approach is much more structured than his father’s and he has definite plans for investment and development which he is implementing systematically over the years as the funds are available. We felt that, particularly in the light of the successful sale of Ilfracombe, his plans were realistic and we had grounds to be cautiously optimistic that the investment would affect our sites.

For those of you at Kenegie, I must ask David to keep you up to date with Mr Newbold’s plans for the site in your side meeting.

Whichever park you are on though, I do continue to urge you to make full use of this association and to communicate…… not only your moans and groans but also the good things that occur at your park. And when there are concerns remember that if they are specific to your unit, address them to the park manager. If they are specific to your park, address them to your rep, and if they are of general interest to all owners address them to David and myself and for park or general matters put it on the website! If you have billing concerns or suspicions, phone Ilfracombe and ask for Carrie who is always keen to clear up any misunderstandings with owners.

We hope that you will find this meeting informative and helpful and we wish you a trouble free and successful season.

Liz Ashenden

Chairman