HOW BH&HPA CHANGED THE FACE OF CARAVANNING IN BRITAIN

An organization which has influenced and shaped the caravan business in general and holiday and residential parks in particular marks its 60th anniversary this year. That’s the British Holiday and Home Parks Association (BH&HPA).

Its aim throughout those six decades: the rating, standards, planning and safety of parks.

Founded in 1952, the BH&HPA has significantly changed the face of caravanning in the United Kingdom.

 A measure of its success is that in 1958 there were 500 members representing 25 per cent of the parks in England and Wales. Today, it numbers more than 2,600 parks from all over the British Isles among its membership.

The Association’s history has seen some major landmark events in the life of British park and holiday home users. Its biggest successes have been in terms of legislation as it affected parks.
   
Such efforts were needed in order to counter a widespread view in government that people who used and, especially, lived in caravans were very much second-class citizens, even being called ‘vagabonds’.

Those efforts bore fruit in 1960 when the first-ever specific legislation for parks was introduced. Prior to the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960, park and holiday homes were lumped in with the ‘tents, vans, sheds and similar structures’ covered by the Public Health Act 1936.

The 1960 Act set a framework for park planning and development that exists to this day. So happy 60th anniversary, BH&HPA.

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