Poolsbrook Caravan Club Site welcomes local dignitaries

The Caravan Club's stunning new £1.9m site acquisition and development at Poolsbrook Country Park, Derbyshire, recently received a visit from MP for Chesterfield, Paul Holmes together with the Leader of Chesterfield Borough Council, Councillor Ray Russell, and Councillors Paul Mann and David Stone.

Built on the site of a former colliery, Poolsbrook Country Park Caravan Club is designed to be the 'greenest' caravan site development in the UK, and a testbed for innovative energy-saving technologies which, if effective, can be rolled out to other locations on The Club's 200-strong sites network.

The array of solar heating panels and photo-voltaic cells on the roofs of the reception office and toilet block give a visual clue that this is no ordinary site development. Solar power is used to pre-heat water used in the site's showers and washbasins; and the grey water they discharge is recycled and used for toilet flushing. Sunlight falling on the photocells generates electricity, which will soon be boosted by the installation of a wind turbine. Low-energy lightbulbs are fitted throughout the site, in the buildings and on mains hook-up bollards.

In addition to these, a geothermal heat recovery system uses a small pump buried underground with around 1,100 metres of brine-filled pipe to generate enough warmth to provide underfloor heating in the toilet block during the daytime. In the middle of the night the energy is diverted to help boost the hot water storage and a further 500 metres of pipework provide a similar facility for the reception office. For every kilowatt of electricity used to power the pump, around 4kW of energy is provided.

The visitors were given a guided tour of the five acre, 86-pitch site and were able to see for themselves the technologies being actively monitored on display panels, together with all the top-class amenities for Caravan Club members to enjoy.

"We believe this site will be a huge asset to the local tourism economy," commented Caravan Club Head of Sites Operations, Steve Kovacs. "It provides over 55,000 'bed nights' per annum and we anticipate members will spend over £409,000 every year off-site in the local area."

Paul Holmes MP added, "As well as all the energy-saving technologies in use here, I was impressed to see that far from using the site simply as a base for visiting the Peak District or as a stop-over on a north-south journey, many members were staying several days to enjoy the more immediate area and spending time in the Country Park or visiting local attractions such as the Chesterfield Canal, Barrow Hill Railway Centre and Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery. The visitors book was full of recommendations to use Chesterfield and Staveley pubs, restaurants, market place and shops."