Take a look at your neighbours’ gardens and if you think that it’s well looked after, nominate them to win the Best Kept Garden award for 2019. The deadline for nominations is August Bank Holiday (Monday 26th August) and the nominations will be judged during that week with the winner announced in September.

Good luck – we can’t wait to look at your gorgeous gardens!

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We go above and beyond to protect and enhance our natural environment, and enshrine this within out Environmental and Sustainability Policy. Here are just a few examples of our work in action:

• Over 4,000 square feet of wildflower meadows, along with plants throughout the park – all from local sources – which together provide pollen, food and shelter for as much of the year as possible. This provides a strong, healthy basis for the local environment, sustaining a wide variety of native flora and fauna species.
• The hedges throughout the sites are native species which have been locally sourced. Our policy is to rotate the coppicing, cutting and laying of all hedges on an informal 2/3 year rota to allow them to blossom and berry fully. We are also careful when cutting the grass to leave a healthy border at the bottom of the hedgerow. All of this makes the hedges the best possible environment for a whole host of native wildlife from insects, to small mammals and birds.
• As well as protecting the natural habitats of our local wildlife species, we also take pains to enhance and help nature by providing artificial habitats such as bird boxes, owl boxes, bat boxes, ‘bug hotels‘ – and since March 2018 we have hosted three apiaries of honey bees.
• We go to great pains to involve our customers and guests in our environmental work and let them know what we do and why. Our new Nature Trail encourages guests to look closely at some of our wildlife-friendly areas for native plants and animals they can see there (even a red squirrel last year!). Our monthly newsletter usually has one or more articles about how guests can help the wildlife around Moss Wood and at home – such as what garden plants to plant when. Since 2017 we have held an annual ‘Wild Fun Day‘ where we show off our environment and our conservation efforts to our guests and encourage them to get involved – such as building bird boxes or bug hotels under our supervision, or going pond dipping in our nature reserve!
• We strongly believe in supporting local businesses. A strong local economy means that we can rely on local goods and services instead of contributing to carbon emissions by bringing them in from further away. We stock a wide range of local products in our on-site shop from meat, to crisps, to ice cream – and even our own ale brewed in the microbrewery on the neighbouring farm! We also hold events such as our increasingly famous Local Taste Test which brings together a range of local producers to provide free samples to guests to show off their goods!
• As well as doing our best to support local producers, we also do our part for local attractions by letting our guests know about them alongside local events. By letting people know some of the amazing places they can visit on our doorstep – like the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – our guests can enjoy themselves without having to travel too far. Not only does this keep money in the local economy with the environmental benefits that has (see above), but it also keeps down our carbon footprint as our customers drive less distance – or can even get around on foot or bike.
• With around 150 static caravans on the park here at Moss Wood, it is inevitable that much of our ecological footprint will be left by our guests enjoying their holiday homes – as they should! Obviously we don’t want to stop this, but there are ways in which we can still look after the environment. In our regular newsletters, email updates and Facebook posts, amongst other news we let our guests know ways in which they can help the environment. From suggestions on capturing rain water to use on their plant beds, to what plants are best for helping wildlife whilst still looking great, to how to build a simple hedgehog shelter – we love seeing how enthusiastic people are about taking up our ideas, and seeing how they can help us to help our local environment.
• We always have static caravan holiday homes for sale on the park, and each year we aim to bring on brand new holiday homes which are more eco-friendly than the year before. For 2019 we have the Carnaby Helmsley Lodge 2019 – which with a Structural Thermal Rating  of 8.2/10 is one of the most efficient caravans available today. By showing an interest in the sustainability credentials of the caravans we buy and sell, we can not only increase our own sustainability going forward – but encourage the manufacturers to become more environmentally aware in the future. Take a look at the environmental stance taken by one of our suppliers, Victory Caravans, here.
• As well as working with our suppliers and manufacturers, we also work with local wildlife charities to help conservation and other environmental efforts. We are proud to be local business members of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust helping them to protect native species in the area. We have also worked closely with the local RSPB with events on the park, encouraging our guests to get involved in their Wild Challenge, and hosting a stall for them at our Wild Fun Day. We also host other groups such as a local group of bird ringers who operate across the Wyre and Fylde areas monitoring bird numbers and health in the area.
• Our collaborations on behalf of the environment doesn’t end there! We have been involved with two local universities – the University of Lancaster and Manchester Metropolitan University – to help promote both a more environmentally friendly future for Moss Wood and to promote sustainable tourism across the industry. Working with the University of Lancaster, we are investigating the best ways in which we may become energy self-sufficient. After being invited to make a presentation at the first Manchester Symposium on Sustainable Tourism in 2017, we have worked to help create a new module on sustainable and responsible tourism with Manchester Metropolitan University.
• While we continue to work with the University of Lancaster on becoming energy self sufficient, we are careful about where we currently purchase our electricity supply for the park. Our current contract supplies us from an energy mix which uses over 50% above the national average from renewable sources. However in 2019 we are excited to be moving to a contract which will guarantee that all electricity supplied to Moss Wood will be from 100% renewable sources!
• While making sure that our energy source is clean is important – it is equally important to reduce our overall usage. To do this, our new office (erected in 2016) makes use of new energy efficient technologies such as LED lighting. We also monitor the electricity and water usage throughout the park in real time – receiving alerts if they spike, which may indicate some waste (a leaking pipe or short circuiting equipment) which we can quickly fix to save resources.
• Waste is an unfortunate fact of everyday life. However – we work hard to try to recover or recycle as much as we can and encourage our guests to do the same, enabling nearly half of the waste on site to be recycled. From the remainder, we use innovative means to try to reuse or recover where possible – for example, we ‘donated’ some of our metallic waste to an artist who creates unique sculpture from recycled material. We take a conscious decision over the eventual waste when purchasing for the business, for example 100% of paper ordered for our office is now from recycled sources.
• We also take a similar decision on other products that we purchase based on their ‘green’ credentials. As an example, all cleaning products that we use at Moss Wood (including both the office and shower block) are now biodegradable and certified as environmentally friendly.
• And much, much more!

While this is far from comprehensive, it might give you an idea of some of the changes we have made even the last couple of years towards ensuring that Moss Wood Caravan Park is a standard bearer for Sustainable Tourism not just for the region, but nationally. Having made it to the finals of the Lancashire Tourism Awards 2018 – the next step will be for us to convince the judges that we deserve to win the overall Sustainable Tourism Award this year!

Thank you for all of your continued support as we aim to further reduce our environmental impact.

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Forest of Bowland: Peaceful, quiet and unspoilt.

It was with delight that we found out that the Forest of Bowland has been nominated as Holiday Destination of the Year 2018 in the high profile BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards 2018 alongside four other British destinations. It is recognition that is long overdue! With stunning countryside as picturesque as any offered in more crowded locations elsewhere, the Forest of Bowland AONB has a range of scenery from rolling hills, lush valleys, gritstone fells, peat moorland, and remarkable woodland. And to add to the charm, traditional English villages are dotted infrequently like seasoning across the landscape. It’s enough to turn someone to poetry!

Countryfile presenter and panel judge John Craven said:

“At the very centre of mainland Britain, this is one of the most unspoiled of all holiday destinations in the UK. Although I’m a little worried that by nominating it, it might become too popular!”

You can vote on your favourite destination from 19th January to 5th March at countryfile.com/awards – don’t forget to make your voice heard by voting for the Forest of Bowland!

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Our credentials in sustainable tourism are well known. We go out of our way to promote our local environment, making it easy for our visitors to be green, and encourage wildlife. Our efforts in this area have been rewarded with an explosion of wildlife over the last year as our 120 square foot interactive display showed – many of you noted a huge range of different species across the park which were added to the board. We have been recognised as outstanding by the David Bellamy Conservation Award Scheme, achieving a Gold standard for each of the last 21 consecutive years – and in 2017 we have gone further, receiving a Special Distinction Award! Our expertise is being increasingly recognised, leading to our invitation to be one of the presenters at the First Manchester Symposium 2017 on progress in responsible and sustainable tourism for development at Manchester Metropolitan University in November.

Our nomination for the Self-Catering Holiday Award in the Lancashire Tourism Awards 2017 stems from our unwavering dedication to customer service – providing our guests with the idyllic country retreat that they want. We have continued to improve Moss Wood Caravan Park over recent years – especially the last twelve months – with additions such as the Nature Trail and the summer marquee which hosted our successful summer events. We have also focused on being as approachable as possible to our guests – not just on site but online, with an increased social media presence and staff dedicated to responding quickly at all times.

We always remember however, that we wouldn’t be in this happy position if it were not for your continued support. So on behalf of everyone on the team at Moss Wood Caravan Park – thank you!

You can find out more information on the Lancashire Tourism Awards 2017 here.

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We believe that we do an excellent job. But don’t just take our word for it – we have been consistently recognised for our hard work to make your holidays fantastic whilst doing as much as possible to boost sustainable tourism. We have won the coveted David Bellamy Conservation Award scheme Gold standard every year since its inception 20 years ago. We were also finalists at the Lancashire Tourism Awards in 2016 in the Sustainable Tourism category.

A key part of our success in building an environmentally responsible holiday park is in our Environmental and Sustainability Policy which is reviewed every year. We encourage our guests and static caravan holiday home owners to read our policy and let us have their thoughts and suggestions on how we can continue to improve.

You can read our 2017-18 Environmental and Sustainability Policy here – and please do get in touch if you have any ideas for what we can do better!

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At the Lancashire Tourism Awards 2016 we were delighted to be finalists – shortlisted for the Sustainable Tourism award. We were really pleased to see some of our local suppliers and attractions being recognised too, such as Bowland Brewery winning their category.

For the Lancashire Tourism Awards 2017 we are hoping to go one better than last year. This year we want to win! So we would love to have your help. What do you think we do particularly well? What do you think makes Moss Wood special? Get in touch and let us know!

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