Dickson Disappointed as Minister for the Economy Fails to Support Caravan Park Users

East Antrim Alliance MLA, Stewart Dickson, has expressed his disappointment with the Minister for the Economy, who has declined to use her influence to support caravan owners struggling to pay full site fees for caravans and mobile homes they haven’t been using.

Mr Dickson had posed a question to the Minister, asking what actions she was taking to encourage caravan park owners to reduce site fees in line with Covid-19 financial support. The Minister’s response made clear that she had no intention of intervening on the issue whatsoever.

Mr Dickson said: “Many people across Northern Ireland have been unable to make use of their caravans and mobile homes during the pandemic, yet are still paying full site fees. This is of course a contractual matter between site users and site owners, but a word of encouragement from the Minister could have gone a long way.

“The Minister for the Economy has once again left me exasperated by her reluctance to use her position to encourage fair and empathetic business practice in Northern Ireland.”

Mr Dickson concluded by himself encouraging caravan park owners to be gracious. He said: “I would implore site owners to look at this from the point of view of the site users. Recovery from this pandemic is on the horizon, and some short-term goodwill will doubtless pay-off in the future.”