February 17, 2010
PHLAGS out for park home residents
In Scotland, over 4,500 people choose to live all year round in residential caravan parks. Scattered over almost 90 parks around the country, many of these park home communities are very small. In recent years, there has been a worrying increase in the number of clashes with unscrupulous park owners trying to take advantage of loopholes in the legislation. Not before time, these small communities are coming together to defend their interests
Park Homes Legislation Action Group – PHLAGS
http://www.phlags.org
PHLAGS exists to increase the profile of residential park home living in Scotland and to create a bottom-up demand for changes in legislation which will serve to protect the some 4,500 people in Scotland who choose park home living – through the support of MSPs and Local Authorities.
PHLAGS is an action group that intends to deal solely with legislative issues and raising the profile of residential park home living here in Scotland and is already accomplishing this at the highest levels of the Scottish Government and Scottish Local Government.
Through the good offices of Ms Angela Constance MSP (SNP Livingston) PHLAGS secured a meeting, in June 2009, with officials of the Scottish Government to review the current position on amending legislation and to urge speedy action in this regard. Ms Irene Oldfather MSP on behalf of the Scottish Labour Party, is also took a keen interest in developments. See the initial briefing sent to Scottish Government Officials on the briefing page. and the outcomes of the meeting are included in our ‘News’ section.
The most significant outcome of this initial meeting was a meeting between PHLAGS and the Scottish Government Minister responsible for Park Homes. Our comprehensive news coverage of this meeting and the subsequent Scottish Government announcement is covered n our news pages.
As a result of this meeting, PHLAGS Directors and Associates have embarked on a project to provide officials with documentary evidence of the problem issues affecting park home residents in Scotland and highlighting those areas where changes in legislation are urgently needed – all in preparation for participating in the coming consultation on new legislation.
If you are a park home resident in Scotland, help PHLAGS to help you by contacting us with details of your park and any issues you face. If you have a resident’s association, please have your secretary contact us so that we can liaise with you.