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“We’re just skint little people”
but we can make a lot of noise!
Following the BBC News coverage HPAG has experienced a large influx of new members. The most notable thing is that no matter who joins their stories echo those of all the members who have gone before them.
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It matters not who the park operator is, it matters not who the GM or Sales Manager is, it matters not how much people have spent or what their professional/social background is, the stories are so consistent that it points to an industry that is systemic in its approach to carrying out misleading and illegal practices.
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We always look out for accounts from members that involve vulnerability, where an owner has shared that with the park operator, for example; they have recently suffered a bereavement or have been diagnosed with a life changing/limiting illness. It is without exception that in their account of the park operators subsequent actions, the park operators have sought to exploit that vulnerability to the fullest extent.
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This is not as a result of individual rogue staff members, it is a result of decades of leadership by individuals who have absolutely no sense of any moral or ethical compass.
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Previously trusted brand names now have a toxicity that will not be shaken off. That toxicity comes from the character of the individuals that are or who have been at the helm.
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We have seen this human characteristic on display many times during the Post Office and other public inquiries.
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On the one hand you have people like Sir Alan Bates, displaying the very best of human nature, selfless, honest, and driven by what is right and just.
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But on the other hand you will have observed the very worst of human nature, self serving, self centered, dishonest, morally and ethically corrupt, lacking empathy, willfully ignorant. Individuals who live in denial that they are in any way responsible for the devastation that has been inflicted on others, as a direct result of their influence over an organisation.
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It is not an organisation, as an entity, that is corrupt, it is the manner of leadership of that organisation that corrupts it.
We are all the ‘skint little people’, people who have been deceived, misled, defrauded, in many cases losing our homes, life savings, pensions, inheritance and sadly for a few, their lives. The losses suffered by the vast majority of people entangled in this toxic sector is quite frankly off the scale.
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Without doubt the CMA and Trading Standards could and should be doing more to clean up the holiday park sector and we seriously have to consider why the leadership of those regulators are not making more noise about it.
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The CMA and TS do not need funding to raise concerns. They do not need funding to influence. What they need is leadership that is driven by what is right and just. They need people with the Sir Alan Bates gene.
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It appears that until such time that they employ Sir Alan Bates, or dare we say it, Carole Keeble, then us, the HPAG members, the ‘skint little people’ have to make the noise ourselves.
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Trading Standards services follow an intelligence-led approach, where the decisions about enforcement activities are informed by the analysis of information from many sources, including complaints to CAB and a business's previous history.
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The only way we can drive TS to do anything in relation to the abuses across the sector is if the statistics are such that they cannot ignore them.
The only way to do that is if members report their individual experiences complaints to Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).
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We urge all our members to contact CAB and register your complaints.
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If every one of our 71k members did this then the statistics would put us at the top of TS intelligence led data and they would have to act.
We can do it, but only if we all do it. No ifs, no but’s, no I’ll do it later.
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To contact your local CAB follow this link.
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