Floating homes save the day for Avon

SHREWD foresight has saved West Midlands holiday park businessman John Allen £2.5m in the past few weeks – and working closely with his insurance brokers has shown how much can be achieved in the face of potential disaster.

The boss of Avon Estates in Stratford-upon-Avon was back in business just two weeks after the summer’s disastrous floods, though many other riverside operators in the West Midlands are likely to stay shut for as long as six months while written-off mobile homes are replaced.

Earlier this year Avon Estates decided to fit more than 100 of the 500 homes on its three parks with a cantilevered flotation system supplied by Marche Industries Ltd of Shrewsbury.

When the river flooded the mobile homes with the flotation systems became boats at anchor on the falling and rising water.

Nic Allen, a Director of Avon Estates and Manager of its Stratford parks, said: “Over the next six months, we will be installing similar flotation systems on a further 220 holiday homes on vulnerable sites to ensure they escape flood damage in future, and to comply with new insurance regulations.”

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