Justice for Park Home Owners!! The Park Home Owners JUSTICE Campaign As the MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole Constituency from 2001 to 2015, I have a long record of campaigning on behalf of park home owners and I still follow the developments which have taken place since I retired. Fairly early in my parliamentary career, I met a group of residents at one of my weekly surgeries in a local library. They were deeply distressed and fearful about losing their homes in which they had invested their savings. It was difficult to understand the severity of the issues they were raising and so I made my first ever visit to a Park Home Site to see the problems first hand. The homes and location seemed idyllic but residents were in despair. From that point on, I felt passionately that there must be more protection for park home owners. This first issue was about extensions to park homes, but as I became more involved, I came across layer after layer of injustices. A leader of the local campaign emerged very early on, Sonia McColl, who was articulate, indomitable, and formidable! Her campaigning extended nationwide and to Parliament. Having successfully saved the local homes from being ripped apart, sale blocking was finally addressed in legislation in 2013. I did become known as the Park Home lady in Parliament from constant parliamentary questions, leading debates and lobbying Ministers but it was Sonia that provided the leadership and motivation and who had the ability to mobilise park home owners and organisations across the country. It is amazing to see what has been achieved over the years with many MPs, residents and organisations giving their support to Sonia’s campaigning. But there is still more to be done, more injustices to address, and that is why the new PHOJC website will be so very important.
“Put simply, the Justice campaign has become something we rely on and couldn’t do without! Sonia provides such drive to aid our campaigns but such vital support to park home residents who just want to get on their lives.”