Council is 'exploring all legal avenues' on Strande Park matter as site licensee defends his acts

Investigations are ongoing regarding the situation at Strande Park in Cookham in the wake of dramatic and unwanted clearance works at the park home site.

Towards the end of July, people living in the park reported that fences and hedges were being destroyed against the will of the occupiers.

The works sparked outrage, leading to calls for the Royal Borough and police to take action.

In an update, the council has said it ‘actively investigating’ and is ‘very much aware of the urgency of the situation and working hard in response to this difficult situation for residents’.

It said it is ‘exploring all legal avenues’ regarding the contentious works, but any prosecution could take some time.

The operator, Sines Park Holdings Ltd, argues that it was acting in the interests of fire safety and the situation should have been dealt with a long time ago.

Nonetheless, residents and Cookham councillors continue to have concerns over the activities there. MP Theresa May and council leader Simon Werner have also taken an interest.

The council has already served a compliance notice ‘requiring the licence holder to comply with the conditions attached to the licence within a specified timescale.’

This relates to an incident around Easter, where other clearance works took residents unawares – garages were demolished, as well as vegetation cut down.

“Until the borough sorts this out, our residents are living in fear,” said one resident who wished to remain anonymous.

Speaking to the Advertiser, site licensee Fred Doe (formerly known as Maurice Sines) reiterated that his actions are because he is beholden to the site licence and its rules over fire safety.

“When we bought the park, for the last 20 or 30 years, everything’s been turned a blind eye to,” he said.

“All I’ve done is bought a caravan park and I’m trying to bring it up to scratch.

“I’ve got to do what the site licence says. It states that anything in the middle of the six metres [between] the homes, there can’t be anything that can burn.”

He claimed it was a senior council staff member who expressed concerns over the flammable material between park homes and ‘agreed’ a letter should be sent to residents, giving them seven days to correct this.

He further claimed that he paid out of his own pocket for people who could not afford to remove their own flammable hedges and fences.

“We're not making any money out of it – no one’s paying any more rent to have new fences up. It’s costing me money – it’s cost us tens of thousands to do,” he said.

Previously, a Sines spokesperson denied knowledge of people at the caravan park feeling intimidated by its activities on the site.

But several individual Strande Park residents contacted the Advertiser at the end of July to say they were ‘afraid to leave their homes’ while the clearance work was being carried out.

“The police have been there loads of times. We say, if there's a problem, tell us,” said Mr Doe. “If we do something wrong, tell us, so we can rectify it.”

Last Thursday, a council spokesperson said: “The council is actively investigating the situation at Strande Park, Cookham, and has previously served a compliance notice related to site licence conditions, which has not been complied with within the required timescales. We take this situation and the concerns of residents very seriously.

“Council officers have visited the site, spoken with a number of residents as part of gathering evidence and are exploring all legal avenues, alongside reviewing evidence with a view to prosecution against non-compliance.

“We’re very much aware of the urgency of the situation and working hard in response to this difficult situation for residents.

“We also need to be clear that any prosecution of this type would take some time due to legal systems and processes which are outside the council’s direct control.

“We’d like to thank people for their ongoing patience.

“Thames Valley Police are actively engaged in the situation and any evidence of alleged criminal matters under the police jurisdiction, which lead to residents feeling unsafe, should be referred immediately to the police.”

Residents had also expressed concerns about access to its fire assembly point and how gas is being hooked up to new mobile homes – which Mr Doe says is above board.

“We’ve referred these latest concerns about fire and gas safety to the fire service and Health & Safety Executive,” said the Borough spokesperson.

“Our future site visits will also be conducted, where possible, with officers from the fire service. If any residents wish to voluntarily provide any evidence or information as part of the council’s investigation over the site licence conditions, please contact the Residential Services Team”

This team can be contacted at residential.services@rbwm.gov.uk 

The Borough said on Wednesday that it stands by this ‘factual statement’ above, in light of Mr Doe’s later comments about the council’s knowledge of and approval of his company’s activities.