Mel Stride MP caught up with the Buckingham Orchard Residents and Community Association (BORCA) today at their park home site in Chudleigh Knighton. Among the issues discussed was the 2013 Mobile Homes Act, which has provided park home residents with greater rights and better legal protection from unscrupulous park home owners.
Speaking after his visit Mel, who helped set up BORCA in 2009, said:
“It was very good to catch up with Buckingham Orchard residents today and to brief them on last year’s legislation. While the majority of park home sites are well run, there have been too many instances of park home residents being mistreated, victimised and in some cases unlawfully deprived of their property by a minority of unscrupulous site owners. By providing residents with protections relating to pitch fees, sale of properties and ensuring site owners comply with the terms of their site licence, park home residents across the country are now far better protected than they were before.”
Mel added, “critical now will be that the local authority uses the new powers it will inherit this April to ensure that site owners meet the obligations resulting from their site licences.”
Mel was a key contributor in debates surrounding the 2013 legislation and his longest speech to date in the House of Commons has been on the rights of mobile park home owners, of which there are more than 1,000 in his Central Devon constituency. Sites in the Teignbridge part of Mel’s constituency include New Park, Fairview Park, Brimley Gardens and Moorlands Park in Bovey Tracey, Dartbridge Manor in Buckfastleigh, Ashburton Park just outside Ashburton and Pathfinder Village near Tedburn St Mary.
One of Chudleigh Knighton’s Teignbridge District Councillors Lorraine Evans, who attended the meeting, added:
“Mel has been a huge help to residents in Buckingham Orchard over the years and it was great he was able to catch up with them today, answer a few questions and get them up to speed on the new park home legislation.”
