The Camping and Caravanning Club has announced that it is planning a phased reopening of its campsites across the UK at the start of July.
The organisation is hoping to open to reopen sites in England on 4th July, in line with the government’s phase three plans of the lockdown exit roadmap, and will be releasing further information regarding sites in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in due course.
The Camping and Caravanning Club manages over 2,000 campsites in the UK.
In a statement via its website, the organisation believes that: “we are well-placed to offer you a safe, enjoyable UK holiday, providing a much-needed break away from home” due to “being in the fresh air, the physical space between pitches and with additional social distancing measures [in place]”.
A comprehensive list of social distancing measures has also been released ahead of reopening.
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Measures the organisation intends to introduce include reducing the number of campers on site, a contactless check-in, a ban on group bookings, six-metre spaced pitches and markers placed on the floor to remind visitors.
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The statement continues: “It’s important that we give our members a choice as to how they would like to camp, so we’ve introduced some new measures to help keep you and our teams safe.”
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“To allow us to operate our campsites in a responsible manner we have increased our cleaning regimes – this places extra demand on our teams and we have had to open some of our campsites without toilets and showers this season, these campsites are better suited to campers who can bring their own facilities.”
“We’ll only open facility blocks if we’re allowed to do so by the government, we will keep our website updated and let you know if anything changes.”
If you’re looking to plan your Great British ‘staycation’ this year, here’s the full list of The Camping and Caravanning Club campsites hoping to reopen next month:
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Open Campsites (with Facility Blocks)
Here are the Club Sites set to be open for the 2020 season with facility blocks available to use, however the reception, play areas, laundry facilities and other communal areas on the site will remain closed.
Alton The Star, Staffordshire
Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Blackmore, Malvern Hills
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
Canterbury, Kent
Charmouth, Dorset
Chertsey, Surrey
Culzean Castle, Ayrshire
Dartmouth, Devon
Delamere Forest, Cheshire
Derwentwater, Lake District
Devizes, Wiltshire
Dingwall, Highlands
Drayton Manor, Staffordshire
Dunbar, East Lothian
Dunstan Hill, Northumberland
Hertford, Herfordshire
Horsley, Surrey
Keswick, Lake District
Kingsbury Water Park, Midlands
Loch Ness Shores, Inverness
Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire
Milarrochy Bay, Loch Lomond
Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway
Moreton, Dorset
Normans Bay, Sussex
Scarborough, Yorkshire
Scone, Tayside
Sennen Cove, Cornwall
Slapton Sands, Devon
Slingsby, Yorkshire
St Neots, Cambridgeshire
Theobalds Park, Hertfordshire
Tregurrian, Cornwall
Verwood, New Forest
West Runton, Norfolk
Winchcombe, Gloucestershire
Windermere, Lake District
Wolverley, Worcestershire
Wyeside, Powys
You can click here more information about each campsite listed.
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Open Campsites (without Facility Blocks)
Here are the Club Sites set to be open for the 2020 season without facility blocks available to use.
If you do choose to stay on one of these sites, you will need to bring your own sanitation. Separate toilet tents can be used on your allocated pitch to accommodate your own chemical toilet. The reception, play areas, laundry facilities and other communal areas on the site will remain closed to help facilitate social distancing.
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All sites will provide access to fresh drinking water, a place to dispose of toilet waste such as a Chemical Disposal Point (CDP), motorhome service points and washing-up facilities.
Pitches will be available with electric hook-ups.
Bakewell, Derbyshire
Bala, Snowdonia
Barnard Castle, County Durham
Beadnell Bay, Northumberland
Bellingham, Northumberland (Open with facilities from 1st August)
Cannock Chase, Staffordshire
Cardigan Bay, Ceredidion
Cheddar, Somerset (Open with facilities from 1st August)
Chichester, Sussex
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
Clent Hills, Midlands
Clitheroe, Lancashire
Conkers, Derbyshire
Corfe Castle, Dorset
Crowborough, Sussex
Delamont Country Park, Northern Ireland
Ebury Hill, Shropshire
Graffham, Sussex
Hayfield, Derbyshire
Hereford, Herefordshire
Kendal, Lake District
Kessingland, Suffolk
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Polstead, Suffolk (Open with facilities from 1st August)
Ravenglass, Lake District
Rhandirmwyn, Carmarthenshire
Rosemarkie, Highlands
Salisbury, Wiltshire
Sandringham, Norfolk
Skye, Isle of Skye
Tarland, Aberdeenshire
Tavistock, Devon
Teversal, Nottinghamshire
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey
Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire
You can click here more information about each campsite listed.
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To read a full list of social distancing and health & safety measures being put in place ahead of reopening, please visit The Camping and Caravanning Club website here.
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The Camping and Caravanning Club is seeing public demand increasing and asks that you book in advance to guarantee your pitch.
Bookings made whilst sites are closed are fully flexible.
A Manchester-based runner has broken an ultramarathon record by running across the desert
Danny Jones
Greater Manchester has a growing obsession with running and endurance events, in particular, did you hear about a locally based runner who’s set the record for legging it across a literal desert?
That’s some ‘Hardest Geezer’ stuff right there.
Yes, whether it’s the likes of the Great MCR Run and October Half, the fully fledged Manchester Marathon, or dare we say it, an extra hard ultra, the region seems to be absolutely chock-full of runners and events these days.
That being said, despite being inspired by countless individuals over the past few years, the feat that has impressed us most this year is the incredible achievement by one man: Alex Welch from Wilmslow.
We’re pretty sure this is the bloke The Pretenders must have been talking about.
Based right here in 0161, by day Alex Welch is employed as a senior cyber security sales specialist at a major European IT services company, SCC, over in Stretford.
However, by both day and night for a full working week late last month, the 29-year-old swapped his computers for a very sturdy pair of running trainers; trail shoes, to be specific, as he trekked across the Namib Desert in Africa.
Stretching more than 2,000 kilometres in total, spanning the reaches of Angola, Namibia and parts of South Africa, the talented distance runner ran approximately 12.5% of that entire landmass over the course of five days.
Broken up into five stages – 50km, 50k, 42k and 22k, as well as a truly brutal 92k day to finish – not only did the indefinable Cheshire-born bloke reach the finish line, but he did so in record time.
Let’s be honest, anyone challenging themselves with the course is clearly an absolute machine, but as seen above and now fully verified, Alex here did so in 24 hours and 27 minutes.
Taking just over a day to complete the entire thing, Alex led every beating everyone else in every single stage and ended up surpassing legendary American ultra runner and now race director Adam Kimble’s time from 2018 by almost 40 whole minutes. Utterly staggering stuff.
Signing up as an official OOSH-sponsored athlete for the event, having only just podiumed at the Ice Ultra round the Arctic Circle back in February, AND the Mountain Ultra across Kyrgyzstan this past June, he’s quite literally ‘endured blistering cold and scorching desert’ (one for Shrek 2 fans, there).
Commenting on the unbelievable achievement, the local lad said: “Namibia was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The heat was on another level, and every stage demanded absolute focus. To come away with the win – and a course record – is overwhelming.
“After the Arctic and Kyrgyzstan, this was the challenge I had been building towards all season. I’m grateful for everyone who has supported me, particularly my colleagues at SCC who have backed me every step of the way.”
Well done, Alex – we’re off to have a lie down because we’re tired just thinking about what you’ve just done, so hope you’ve at least got a few weeks of relaxation and victory pints lined up. That’s how we toasted our taste of an ultra, anyway…
8 million Brits are predicted to write their Christmas cards using AI this year, new research finds
Emily Sergeant
Millions of Brits are predicted to use AI to help them write their Christmas cards this year.
According to some new Royal Mail research, AI is most likely to be used for researching gifts (19%), festive party ideas (13%), and decoration inspiration (13%) throughout this festive season, but in what is a revelation many will find surprising – and even alarming – it’ll even be used for the timeless tradition of sending Christmas cards.
2,000 UK adults who celebrate Christmas were surveyed by the postal service early last month on how they plan to make use of technology this festive season.
The new research found that 11% of respondents will be using AI to help write the messages for their Christmas cards, which works out to be around eight million people.
It’s the under-55s who are driving the trend, as you can probably imagine – with 57% of this age group planning to lean on AI for guidance, compared to just 14% of those over 55.
Oh, and you’ll want to keep an extra eye on the Christmas cards that come from the men in your life too, as men are 67% more likely than women to use AI to help them.
Eight million Brits are predicted to write their Christmas cards using AI this year / Credit: KoolShooters
Although it may be largely frowned upon, it’s fairly easy to see why people are turning to tech to find the right words, as the Royal Mail’s research found that nearly one in five (19%) Brits say they don’t know what to write in cards, and this figure rises even further to 31% when it comes to 18-24-year-olds.
Despite the use of AI as a helping hand, three quarters of Brits (74%) do still think it’s important to keep the tradition of sending handwritten Christmas cards alive.
“AI is becoming part of everyday life for many people,” says technology journalist and broadcaster, Georgie Barrat. “So it’s natural we’ll see it used during the festive season. When it comes to writing cards, it can help you go beyond a simple ‘Merry Christmas’ and choose words that feel more unique.
“Often, people know what they want to say – they just need a little help expressing it.”
Richard Travers, who is the Managing Director of Letters at Royal Mail, concluded: “No matter what you include in your card, or how you choose to write your message, cards are truly a way of spreading festive cheer.”
Emily Sergeant -
17th June 2020 
