More commonly called an RV village or a campsite village in the U.S., a holiday park is a British term for a wider holiday resort built around either a campsite, cabin village, or luxury lodges rather than a hotel.
Some are simple sites for traveling campers to park their car for a night and access water and electricity, while others are elaborate resort-style villages with everything from swimming pools and on-site bars and restaurants to an attached amusement park with common attractions such as go-karts, mini-golf, ropes courses, and fun-fair games.
Parkdean Resorts and Haven Holiday Parks are two of the biggest holiday park operators in the United Kingdom, running more than 100 parks across the country between the two.
Cove Communities Venture 2 Medmerry OpCo Limited enters administration in U.K.
Medmerry Holiday Park, a smaller holiday park in the West Sussex ceremonial county in the southeast region, has attracted a loyal visitor base since it opened in 1925 but has been closed since April 2024, when seasonal flooding through the region devastated the 90-acre site and prompted evacuations of both local residents and holidayers.
The company behind the holiday park, Cove Communities Venture 2 Medmerry OpCo Limited, has now entered administration. The British term is used for insolvent businesses and is the closest equivalent to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S.
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The other properties under Cove Communities include the Gwel an Mor Resort in Cornwall, the Solway Holiday Park in England’s Lake District, and the Argyll Holidays holiday park in Scotland. According to the administrators, those parks are not affected by the insolvency proceedings and are expected to continue operating as usual.
The full Medmerry Nature Reserve and Bracklesham Bay Beach was home to 308 chalets built around a central pub and restaurant and an outdoor swimming pool.
Gareth Fuller – PA Images / Getty Images
What will happen to Medmerry Holiday Park?
The park owners confirmed that, with the company now under administration, Medmerry will not reopen to visitors. The closure after the flooding was initially presented as temporary for the period during which repairs to the grounds could be made.
Further details around the parent company’s financial state have not been made publicly available. Leaseholders operating on the property had been offered the chance to exit their leases early, months prior to the administration filing.
Most have chosen not to, and the question of how and whether they will be compensated, given the complete shutdown, now looms unresolved.
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As it had been a community staple for over 100 years, the flooding and subsequent inability to reopen Medmerry prompted sadness from both locals and travelers to the area who had generational memories of staying at the camp.
“Having just returned from a four day break and was blown away with this park, the friendly and well informed staff and quality and price of the food in the restaurant was second to none,” one local resident wrote underneath a post announcing that the holiday park was under administration, The Sun reported.
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