“I thought, that’s a big boy, then it’s in good hands,” park guest Martien van de Beeten (70) reflects. Those were his thoughts four years ago, when Peter Gillis took over the Slot Cranendonck recreation park with Oostappen Holiday Parks. He felt the closure of the park coming, but it still came as a shock. “The enjoyment had yet to begin.”
Four years ago it was a completely different picture at Cranendonck Castle. “It was such a nice and cozy family campsite, which had existed for 50 years. A few weeks later it was taken over by Gillis,” Martien remembers. He was not yet aware of the misery that would entail.
Within no time it started to bubble in the park. The café closed, the restaurant closed its doors and the same for the snack bar. “There was no more entertainment, no train, no bouncy castle. The tourists dropped out.” Martien saw the park fade from a vibrant place full of recreation and smiling faces to a field where only the hard core came. “It just backfired.”
“That’s the worst thing of all: you just lose your home.”
“So I went to the municipality to seek redress,” says Martien. It did not grant a new permit, also because people appeared to be there permanently. “The answer was that we cannot do anything as long as the park is still owned by Oostappen. That is the worst of all: you simply lose your home.”
“Then the money is gone.”
Martien and his wife keep their fingers crossed that there will be a new owner, because that alone would be the solution. He will be retired from New Year’s Eve, so the great enjoyment together should really start now.
“I adapted everything in the mobile home to my wife, who is less mobile, so that we could enjoy it together,” he says. Those plans are in the water due to the closure of the park. “And there’s no insurance for that. The money is gone.”
His wife Anneke is mainly relieved. It’s not great news, but at least the band-aid has come off. The uncertainty about whether they will ever be able to stay at their house again is breaking the campers.
But now that the news is out, things are moving very quickly. They were given a few hours on Saturday to empty, tow away or demolish their houses and caravans. Then the gate is locked.
“We can also visit on Tuesday. Furthermore, you just have to leave your mobile home and wait to see if a new owner comes. The gate closes at four o’clock, even though we have all paid parking fees until January 1,” says Martien.
He himself visits on Tuesday. Coincidentally, he had already rented a van to move some large things. He could already feel the mood brewing.
So much uncertainty for the camping guests. “I think that, even if a new owner comes, it will take years before the atmosphere there is good again,” says Martien, disappointed.
