Woodhall Country Park on a high following major investment

26/05/2011

A popular country park in Lincolnshire has enjoyed record bookings following the completion of a major project with the support of Yorkshire Bank.

Woodland Estates Ltd has invested £750,000 to develop an 80 acre piece of farmland at Woodhall Country Park in Woodhall Spa into a five-star caravan park complete with 80 touring and 20 camping pitches and shower and toilet facilities.

The project has been part funded by Yorkshire Bank’s Nottingham Financial Solutions Centre (FSC) and a grant from the East Midlands Development Agency (emda).

Director Steven Schofield said the park now boasts some of the best camping facilities in the country.

“Our aim was to create a top class rural experience for all our visitors and we’re absolutely thrilled with how the park now looks and in fact we’re hoping to be awarded five-star accreditation from Visit Britain very shortly,” he said.

“We’ve enjoyed a long association with Yorkshire Bank and business banking partner, Russell Kilner, and their support on this project has been brilliant.

“We’ve been working hard on the project since we partly opened last August which has involved us converting 80 acres of fairly poor quality farmland into a caravan park which is enclosed by woodland and around three lakes.

“The response we’ve had from our visitors and the local community to the scheme has been fantastic and we were fully booked up for Easter and had more than 100 families staying with us from all over the country.”

Steven said Woodland Estates has been working closely with East Lindsey District Council, Natural England, The Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB), emda and the Forestry Commission as part of the project.

He added: “The site is home to a wide a range of flora and fauna, such as great crested newts, badgers and bats, and we’re undertaking an extensive landscaping of the site to further enhance the environment we have to offer wildlife here.

“This includes us carrying out a major tree planting project, so in 12 months time the park will look even more pleasant than it already does now.

“We’ve tried to use as many sustainable initiatives as we can on the site, which includes us re-using the majority of the felled wood for use on the estate and the poorer quality wood to help power our bio-mass boiler to provide hot water and under floor heating, which means we do not have to use gas or oil.”

Russell, business banking partner at Yorkshire Bank’s Nottingham FSC, said Woodland Estates Ltd had created a superb facility and was providing a boost for tourism in the region.

“The caravanning industry is really booming as we continue to recover from the recession and Woodhall Country Park is a top class facility and I’m not surprised the new look park is proving to be so popular,” he said.

“Yorkshire Bank was delighted to support a project which is not only attracting visitors to the region but also providing local residents in Woodhall Spa with a really nice facility they can benefit from.”