Keeping the grounds, water, paths and traffic safe across a busy holiday park.
A holiday park is not one place. It is a small, changing settlement with water, trees, play equipment, roads, gas, electricity and hundreds of people who have never been there before. Some of those people are toddlers. Some arrive after dark, tired, looking for pitch 47 with a torch and a sleeping child. Your regular guests know where the pond is. The family in the touring caravan who booked yesterday does not.
That is why safety on a large outdoor site cannot rest on one walk-round in April. The park in August is a different place from the one you looked at in spring, and a single storm can change it again overnight. What works is a rhythm: a thorough check before you open, routine checks through the season, extra ones after storms or heavy bank-holiday use, and a specialist eye on the things that need it. Everything below sits on top of knowing your own site. A checklist borrowed from another park will miss the hazards that are particular to yours.
If your site has a pond, lake, stream, ditch or ornamental water feature, this belongs near the top of your list. A warning sign alone will rarely address every risk. What matters is assessing that specific water: how deep it is, whether the banks are steep or slippery, how easily a small child could reach the edge unseen, how visible it is at dusk, and how quickly someone could be helped out.
From there you decide what is sensible. It might be planting or a fence that breaks the direct run from a play area to the water, a bank a child could actually climb back up, better lighting on a path beside a stream, or a throwline kept where staff can reach it. Signs still help, as one layer among several. Picture the family who does not know the site and the toddler who wanders off while the awning is going up. Your setup has to work for them, not just for guests who already know where the deep bit is.
Mature trees are part of why people love your park, and they come with a responsibility. The risk from trees is genuinely low, so the response should be sensible rather than fearful. The practical trick is to look harder, and more often, at trees near pitches, play areas, car parks and busy paths than at trees in a far corner where nobody goes. Someone with a bit of training can keep an eye out for the warning signs, dead limbs, splits, fungus, a new lean after wind, and you bring in a qualified tree specialist for anything that gives cause for concern. And build in the check people forget: after a serious storm, walk the occupied and busy areas before you let people back under the branches.
Children's play equipment needs more than a glance. A typical arrangement combines routine visual checks for obvious problems, more detailed operational inspections and a periodic main inspection by a suitably competent person. The exact frequencies should reflect the manufacturer's instructions, usage, environment and risk. Record the findings and make sure defects are acted on, not simply noted.
Gas and electricity are areas where assumptions can have serious consequences. Gas work must be completed by an engineer on the Gas Safe Register who is qualified for the relevant appliances. Park-owned holiday accommodation should be included in suitable annual gas-safety arrangements. Bulk tanks and cylinder stores need to be correctly sited, secured and protected from vehicle impact. Electrical hook-ups and the site supply should be installed, maintained and periodically inspected by competent people. Keep the records: they demonstrate what was checked, when and by whom.
Privately owned units require clear boundaries. You may not control everything an owner does inside a lodge, but you do control the park's services and can set reasonable safety requirements through the pitch agreement. Where the agreement allows it, requiring owners to provide suitable gas and electrical safety evidence can protect neighbouring units as well as the owner. The agreement should state clearly what evidence is required and how often, rather than introducing the expectation only after a problem occurs.
Changeover day is your busiest and riskiest window. Cleaners, a hot tub engineer, a delivery lorry and arriving guests all move through the same roads at once. Check that contractors know what they are doing, agree where and when they are working, and make sure a reversing lorry near a play area is planned rather than discovered. Keep vehicles and people apart with clear routes, a sensible speed limit and good sightlines at the entrance, and remember a five-year-old on a scooter is short and quick. Grounds machinery, mowers and strimmers, should be well maintained and used only by people trained on it, and a ride-on mower crossing a footpath at ten in the morning needs a moment's thought. Last, keep emergency routes clear. An ambulance or fire engine has to be able to reach any pitch, so parked cars, bins and vans cannot be left blocking the way.
A holiday park contains a wide range of risks, so the answer is to prioritise them for your particular site. A health and safety audit from us walks the park with you, separates routine operational checks from matters needing specialist input, and leaves you with a plan your team can use through the season. If you want to enter your busiest period with a clearer view of what matters most, that is the time to arrange it.
A site audit walks the park with you, separates routine checks from matters needing a specialist, and leaves you with a plan your team can use through the season.
See How Audits WorkA site audit gives you a clearer view of what matters most before the crowds arrive.