XL bullies, machete attacks, piled garbage, shoddy maintenance and flooding. Meadow Bay holiday park destroyed our lives

XL bully dogs running free, machete wielding thugs, flooding, piled up rubbish, sales lies and 'shocking lack of maintenance' drive young couple apart, leaving one with chronic mental health issues and the other drowning in debt

First home together

Samantha Driver (35) and Lushana Howard (30) were struggling to find somewhere to rent that would allow their two quiet and well behaved Chihuahua dogs. "We saw a caravan advertised for rent at Billing Aquadrome that would accept pets," says Samantha. "It was a bit small, but it would do. It would only be temporary until we could buy our own place."

The salesman, Martin (who worked for Meadow Bay, the parent company), advised them that buying a caravan outright would be more cost effective. The couple discussed buying a second hand unit to save money, but Martin convinced them to spend £48,000 on a brand new caravan. They needed to pay £1000 immediately to secure the deal, and Samantha's mother offered to take a loan for £34,000 against her own property. The remaining money was loaned by Samantha's father.

Promises made...

Samantha's mother wisely requested another meeting with the sales staff to confirm details, as she was putting up her house as security for the bulk of the purchase money. "We made sure that our dogs were ok to be left alone in the caravan with occasional help from a dog-sitter," confirms Samantha. "We chose our site, number 14 for two reasons, firstly that's my birthday and secondly we were told that was a particularly well protected location in case of any flooding. We knew that the park had flooded before, however Martin assured us that Meadow Bay were investing £12 million in the park and flood protection was the top spending priority."

"We confirmed that our annual site fees included: rates and water; grounds maintenance and landscaping; park security; street lighting; office admin; and access to the indoor heated swimming pool, bars and restaurants, fishing lakes and owner events," continues Samantha.

"We had heard horror stories of some parks increasing annual fees to £10,000 a year or more and sought assurances that this would not happen here. Martin said that while he couldn't guarantee specific limits on increases, they would be minimal.

"Finally we confirmed that we could live permanently in the caravan. We've all seen the stories about people who bought a static caravan to live in, only to be told later that it could only be used as a holiday stay. Martin assured us that we could live in the park legally for 11 months a year. The park closes from January 6th to February 1st every year as a kind of loophole to allow people to live there permanently outside of those weeks."

Their concerns seemingly addressed, Samantha and Lushana completed the agreement and moved in.

...Promises broken

Before their brand new caravan was even delivered, the first body blow landed. "We were waiting for the caravan to be installed when we were given the paperwork, which we had not seen completed copies of until this point," says Samantha. "Our first shock was to discover that not only were dogs forbidden to be left unattended in a caravan (contrary to what Martin had promised us), but any person minding a dog had to be over 18 years old. This would have been a deciding factor in us buying the caravan as the only dog-sitter we knew was 17 years old.

"Already upset, we went to plot number 14 to inspect our newly installed caravan. It was installed on plot 13.

"We were unhappy about this as not only are we superstitious, but had chosen 14 because of my birthday as well as the very salient fact that it was sold to us as being better sited for flood defence.

This was only the beginning of the couple's disappointments with the park.

"Despite our own small dogs not being allowed to be alone even inside the caravan, or minded by a 17 year old, there were terrifying XL bully dogs roaming unattended around the site. We needed to put up skirting around our caravan to keep the dangerous dogs out of our area, but were told this was not allowed unless we paid the park £2700 to do it for us.

"The ground rent has already gone up by £500 in the first year. It is now £5100 for 2025. We can not afford increases like this. Also we soon discovered that rates and water are not included in the annual fees, which increases the annual costs even further."

"The swimming pool is rarely open and we have not seen a single 'owner exclusive event'.

"The land maintenance is non existent as far as we can see. There are overgrown hedges and uncut grass everywhere, as well as piles of garbage, dog excrement, duck excrement and other litter all over the park. The 'street lighting' does not work except for one individual light at the end of the park. The road is pitch black at night, and can not be walked without torches.

"The annual fee is supposed to include on-park security, yet there were multiple reports of XL bully dog attacks around the park, some resulting in fatalities to other dogs.

"We have also personally witnessed terrifying scenes of people dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and threatening people in cars with machetes. Since one such event, my partner Lushana has suffered from severe mental health issues requiring long-term professional care."

Despite Martin's assurances about Meadow Bay investing in flood prevention measures the park has indeed flooded. Luckily the water stopped inches from the underside of the couple's caravan.

Further issues

"Everything about the caravan was shoddy. Badly fitted doors, leaking taps and cheap and dangerous front steps. The steps were nothing like the brand new, high quality ones we were shown on the sales presentation. They were slippery, had gaps and they sank into the ground when it rained. Lushana injured herself slipping on the steps. We complained to the office, but were simply told: 'tough, you won't be getting the good steps.'

"The caravan design company (Atlas) eventually sent someone to fix the issues, and he confirmed that the fixtures were bodged. We began to question whether our caravan was even a new one."

The couple discovered that they were contractually obliged to buy gas directly from the park at £98 per canister, despite it being much cheaper elsewhere. They also were forbidden from erecting even a portable clothes dryer outside.

"The 'garden' was a patch of uneven grass with a huge, mud circle where a plastic table had been," says Samantha. "There was an old satellite dish half embedded in the ground, and when they did cut the nettles, they left them in a heap together with old plastic bottles, crisp packets and other rubbish in a storm drain at the back of our caravan."

"Any time we complained about any of the issues, we were met with hostility, aggression and even swearing from angry staff members who came banging on our door."

58% depreciation in value

The couple enquired about selling the less-than-one-year-old caravan back to the park, but were told that the most Meadow bay could offer was only £20,000. "That would be a £28,000 drop in value in under 12 months," says Samantha. "That price would not come close even to covering the outstanding debt payments we have on the caravan."

"This has destroyed us," admits Samantha. "All our money has gone. The caravan is standing empty but still costing us over £2000 a month in fees and loans to pay back. We have had to move back in with my family in London and thanks to these stressful events at Billing Aquadrome, Lushana still requires professional medical help and is only just starting to recover.

"Billing Aquadrome has turned out to be nothing but a run down slum. We were sold a dream and bought a nightmare."

Nationwide problem

"Unfortunately many of the issues suffered by Samantha and Lushana are happening right across the industry," explains Greg Wilson, CEO of European Consumer Claims (ECC) - the company spearheading a national campaign for accountability within the holiday park sector.

"For some time ECC have been lobbying for changes in the law to make holiday park businesses both more strictly regulated and accountable. So far, successive governments have refused, saying that people should rely on the Consumer Credit Act for protection. However for most people this is an expensive and often ineffective way to seek redress without expert help.

"ECC remains staunchly at the forefront of this national fight for holiday park justice."