Caravan owners say site is 'cashing in' on Sizewell

Former caravan owners have accused a holiday park of "cashing in" on the construction of a nuclear power plant by allowing contractors to stay on site.

Cakes and Ale Holiday Park in Theberton, near Leiston, Suffolk, is owned and run by the Harrison Leisure Group, having originally been opened in 1968.

Lodge owners told the BBC it was once "a real gem", but said its sense of "luxury" had been eroded by the number of Sizewell C workers staying at the complex.

Michael North, from the Harrison Leisure Group, said the park had been left with no choice but to diversify because of the number customers who had left in recent years.

In 2025, for example, it was paid 200 pitch fees of more than £5,000 each, but this year only 115 people had decided to part with their cash and remain at the site.

North added that the firm had not sold a caravan at the complex in a year and, therefore, relied more on being able to rent accommodation to contractors.

One customer who has moved on is Dennis Wilson, from Felixstowe, who had a lodge on the park for six years and worked in the bar for three.

He purchased his lodge for about £28,000, but said he had sold it back to the park for only £2,250 after deciding to leave following the arrival of Sizewell workers.

"The park was a really, really lovely holiday park, everything was so beautiful, but it became shoddier and shoddier and went downhill," he said.

"There are work vans everywhere now because they can't all fit in the car park and it just is a shame because it was a real gem in Suffolk, but it has now been destroyed.

"They are just cashing in, aren't they?"

Greg Dumbrell said he had also decided to walk away from the holiday park, which says it "welcomes both holiday home owners and holiday makers", following the influx of contractors.

He purchased his holiday home for nearly £100,000 before moving to Cyprus in February 2023, eventually coming back to the county in March 2025.

On his return, he said he had been shocked by the number of Sizewell workers who had been allowed at the site, and the poor condition of the lodges they were staying in.

He decided to sell his lodge privately but struggled, so ultimately sold it to the park instead for less than £30,000, which left him "upset, distraught and annoyed".

"I fully understand that these are not houses, they don't make money, but I've lost significantly more than I anticipated," he said.

"This was my pension pot, but it has now taken a hammering and yet I was never warned this could be turned into a contractor site at any moment.

"I don't blame the contractors in any way, but the park has gradually been forcing people out so that they can lease out or rent out the lodges to them [the contractors] for more money."

Another holidaymaker who left the park in September said there had been a "mass exodus" since the arrival of Sizewell workers.

She said they would come and go "at all hours of the night" and the caravans brought in to accommodate them had not been "fit for holidays".

Speaking anonymously, she said: "We bought into Cakes and Ale because it gave us a little luxury – but it is only a luxury when it is luxurious.

"As soon as they started allowing people in hi-vis outfits on site it stopped being luxurious.

"So, I was upset and I was angry because it was another bitter end to a nice holiday park."

Sizewell C - a new £38bn two-reactor nuclear power station - is expected to be operational in the mid-to-late 2030s.

It will reportedly power the equivalent of about six million homes and generate electricity for 60 years.

At the construction's height, the project will need 7,900 workers, with about 2,600 coming from the local area.

More than 500 of them can use on-site accommodation at the former Pontins site in Pakefield, which Sizewell C took over last year.

The rest will be using private accommodation, or an accommodation campus being built on the main development site.

A Sizewell C spokesperson said: "Our accommodation team works closely with local authorities and stakeholders to ensure our clear and balanced housing strategy minimises any impact on the local community - both now and during peak construction.

"The Cakes and Ale Holiday Park is not part of our accommodation plans, and we have no control over the decisions made by its owners.

"We will continue to regularly review our accommodation requirements as the project develops, to ensure it supports the needs of the project and the local community."

The Harrison Leisure Group said it had to either "embrace the changes or allow our business to decline" in light of the development of Sizewell C.

"We communicated to our current owners our plans to accept reservations from people working in the area," a spokesperson said.

"We presented all our holiday home owners with the opportunity to a one-to-one conversation with the general manager of the park at a time that was most convenient to them to voice any concerns they may have had.

"As a caravan park we aim to provide a home away from home to any person residing with us.

"We have invited the BBC to Cakes and Ale to gather the full facts of the situation."

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