Camber, or at least Camber Sands is no stranger to the national press, used on numerous occasions as a back drop for feature films and advertising campaigns, the most recent when Sir Michael Caine appeared live on set earlier this year, as covered by Rye News.
Another focus of local and national media attention has been Pontins Holiday Camp which has had plenty of bad press following exposure of the poor conditions unsuspecting holiday makers have discovered on arrival there. The owners, Britannia Hotels have faced fierce criticism in recent years and were named as the UK’s worst hotel chain for eight consecutive years by the consumer watchdog, Which?
With the recent sharp increase in Channel migrants, the hotel bill for accommodating small boat arrivals in various hotels and guest houses is costing the taxpayer £6,000,000 a day.
We understand from a report in today's (13 December) Daily Mail that the Home Office is in negotiations to hire Pontins Holiday Camp to accommodate migrant arrivals. The 820-chalet, purpose-built facility, built in 1968 and set in approximately 32 acres, is just moments away from Camber's famous and very highly regarded five-mile long Blue Flag beach.
A government source has confirmed that this site “is one of the options under consideration” and as it’s less than an hour's drive from Dover, where the majority of migrants land from Northern France, it seems an obvious contender.
It comes after 555 migrants reached Britain over the weekend despite the sub-zero conditions, the total number to have arrived in small boats since the start of the year is now 44,867 compared with 28,526 in the whole of last year.
Desperate people in a desperate situation who see the UK as a safe haven. Pontins isn't the only location under consideration and it is understood that alternative sites also being examined include disused student accommodation and properties owned by the Ministry of Defence.
Social media sites are already seeing reaction to this proposal, comments such as "Why not stop at Pontins?". Another says: "We've lots of caravan parks too which'll be empty most of the winter. Hundreds of refugees could be temporarily housed locally." One post reads: " This is ridiculous, given the entire population of Camber is circa 1400 people. There’s inadequate shops, schools, doctors as it is."
If this proposal goes ahead then at least Pontins will provide a much needed safe haven for these new visitors and whilst the conditions there may not be to the standards we consider acceptable, when you genuinely have nothing, have cheated death by crossing the channel and have, in many cases, escaped the horrors you left behind you, Pontins all of a sudden looks like the paradise it was always meant to be.
