Newquay caravan park in major environmental project (From Falmouth Packet)

Newquay caravan park in major environmental project

4:10pm Tuesday 14th July 2009

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An award-winning Cornish caravan and camping park is celebrating its 50th anniversary by joining forces with Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Duchy College in a major environmental project.

Trevella Park at Crantock near Newquay has launched a tree adoption scheme with the aim of planting a thousand trees and shrubs to increase the woodland areas and boost the site’s status as a haven for wildlife.

Coinciding with a special accolade from David Bellamy, visitors are being invited to adopt a new tree or scrub for £10. This will also help pay for other conservation projects by Cornwall Wildlife Trust. Trevella has begun working with the Trust and Duchy College for training purposes, enabling students to work on site in pursuit of qualifications required for tree-planting schemes elsewhere.

The moves follow ten years of gold-standard success in the David Bellamy Conservation award scheme.

The golden decade has been crowned with a David Bellamy Special Distinction Award, with Trevella being one of just 15 parks nationwide to qualify.

Dr Bellamy, world-famous conservationist and broadcaster, wrote: “The award recognises that your environmental work is truly innovative and something of which you can be rightly proud.”

Trevella has been in the same family ownership ever since founders Trixie Mitchell and her late husband Edgar began taking their holidays in a caravan near Portreath.

Trixie recalls: “We brought our caravan back to our base at Trevella Farm and decided to let it out to friends. A year later there were four caravans and we realised we ought to apply for a licence!

“There were very few caravan and camping parks in Cornwall then. A lot of people thought we had lost the plot, and even my father told us our money would be better spent on good bullocks rather than building a toilet block!”

Fifty years on, Trevella now has 76 caravans and a wide range of support facilities, employing ten people all year round with more in season. It has won numerous awards and earlier this year was rated one of Britain’s top 100 such parks – out of several thousand – by Practical Caravan magazine. In 2007 it was national runner-up in the Alan Rogers Family Site Award scheme, and its gardens have consistently been first or second in their class in the Newquay In Bloom contest.

“We have undoubtedly come a very long way since we first began to develop the business here and our record of achievement over our first half-century speaks for itself,” says Trixie.

“There is no substitute for top-quality product and service, but we are immensely proud of our conservation policy and so it seemed only natural to celebrate the 50th anniversary with another big ‘green’ push. We are always striving to be more environmentally sustainable and lower our environmental impact, and especially to improve the park as a haven for wildlife.”

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