West Country Parks tackling climate change with Energy Oasis
January 26, 2023
Working to reduce our Carbon Footprint
We are excited to announce that West Country Parks has partnered with Energy Oasis
as we commit to doing our part to tackle climate change. Inspired by the opportunity to create a world that future generations can enjoy, the Energy Oasis team of zero carbon specialists are working closely with our team to help us to reduce our carbon footprint.
Since 1972, it has been our aim to provide wonderful, cost-effective domestic holiday options for our visitors. It is important to us that, as a business, we act now to help preserve the natural world for future generations to enjoy.
Through our partnership with Energy Oasis, we have committed to a three-phase plan that will see our business use less fossil fuels whilst providing future energy security across our holiday parks.
Phase 1 of this plan is currently under way at Riverside Holiday Village near Weston-super-Mare - with Solar PV installation taking place at the park. The new system will provide 136,510kWh per year, enabling us to significantly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels to power the park's numerous facilities. This initial step will see our business save 31.81 tonnes of carbon per year, the equivalent of planting 1,464 trees, every single year.
Group Manager, David Tattersall, said on the partnership;
“We are delighted to partner with Energy Oasis. As our business is reliant on visitors coming to enjoy the stunning Somerset countryside, we feel that it is our responsibility to do everything that we can to help repair the planet and reduce our carbon footprint.”
The work in developing our business is an ongoing process and details of the further phases of our plan will emerge over the next year, as we continue to maintain our responsibility towards energy usage.
Find out more about our Somerset Holiday Parks.
Latest News
Following our annual Mystery Guest visits by a professional inspector this April, each park has been re-assessed under a set of quality standards agreed between the AA and the UK Tourist Authorities. The inspection included an assessment of each parks; Location and Access Sustainability/Green Credentials Customer Care Cleanliness/Maintenance across the park Toilets (quality, cleanliness and maintenance) Other Site Facilities Pitches Grounds All three parks scored an impressive 91% overall (an increase on last year) - with Coombes and Rose Farm both achieving full marks for 'customer care' and Riverside’s impressive facilities and cleanliness/maintenance across the park bagging them the top score. Additionally, each park was again awarded a Gold Award, placing them amongst the best sites in their star category. When visiting Four Star Parks, customers can expect an extremely high standard in all areas, with well-maintained facilities, very good customer care and additional facilites compared to lower rated establishments. David Tattersall, Group Manager of West Country Park Homes: "Consistency is so important in our industry and we're extremely proud to have achieved this level of award by such a high-brand Assessor for the second year running. It just confirms that we are continuing to meet the high standards that our visitors expect and deserve."
On another sunny morning this April, volunteers from Riverside Holiday Village, Edithmead Leisure and Park Homes, Fairways Holiday Park and New House Farm headed out on our third 2-mile 'litter pick' along Bridgwater Road in Weston-super-Mare. We managed to collect 14 sacks of litter, plus several broken road signs and a damaged car tyre! As usual, energy drink cans were by far the biggest offender, closely followed by discarded alcohol bottles and fast food takeaway wrappers. We even found a discarded wet floor sign! All waste was collected by our waste management partner, MJ Church. Now the biggest initiative of its kind in the UK, the Million Mile Clean is an annual event, mobilising 1,000,000 million volunteers to clean over 10,000,000 miles of UK landscape between 2021 - 2030. We would like to say a massive 'thank you' to all of our volunteers - we're planning another 'clean' this September - please keep a lookout for more updates about future events!
Last year, 13 volunteers collected 23 sacks of litter over 4 miles as we completed two Million Mile Cleans. And this April, we're doing it all over again!