By Bryana Francis

Copyright walesonline

Heartbroken caravan owners at a Welsh holiday park are beginning to leave the site for the final time after finding out at the start of September it would be closing at the end of this season. The 200 caravan owners are now facing the difficult decision of choosing between scrapping or selling the caravans they’ve spent several years renovating and paying for. On Thursday, September 5, caravan owners at Happy Valley in Porthcawl received letters telling them the site will close on October 31, 2025. They were told they must “make the necessary arrangements” to remove their caravans by the end of February 2026. Amanda Jayne, from the Rhondda , has had a caravan there for over ten years and is still undecided about what to do next. She and her husband have started by taking their decking down but are worried about being offered “peanuts” for their caravan. She said they were hoping to sell it but a buyer would need to pay to transport the caravan which proves quite costly. If that doesn’t work out they’ll instead be forced to pay at least £1,000 to scrap it, she said. Stay informed on Bridgend news by signing up to our newsletter here . She added: “It’s people’s livelihoods, they’ve put all their money and all their pensions into these holiday homes. It’s awful, people are going around offering people peanuts for their caravans. “Some elderly people can’t sell theirs because all the metal work is gone but the most gutting part is they have to pay £1,000 to have them scrapped at their age. “It’s torture down there, people are crying, they are just heartbroken. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” Amanda also explained how the site has started to change, with gaps appearing around the site where caravans previously sat. She said: “There’s just gaps and shells, all you can hear is hammers. It’s a very solemn place right now and whenever you speak to anyone they are just crying. It’s awful to walk around and see people that you’ve known for many, many years have nothing left of their caravan.” The closure of the holiday site comes four years after the touring site was shut in 2021, and this has left those on the residential site concerned about the future. When the news first broke that the holiday site was to shut within weeks, residents like Wendy Boylin, who has lived there for 34 years, had no idea whether they would also be impacted. Despite now being reassured that “everything’s alright” for residents, Wendy’s still sceptical. She told WalesOnline: “All they’ve said is everything’s alright on residential and that nothing is happening here but I can see something happening because they won’t develop the site and leave us here, it will be luxury accommodation. “We are all on tenterhooks up here, we aren’t getting anything done like hedge cutting or anything. There’s so many questions like is there going to be a manager who we can go to and who’s going to cut our grass.” For Wendy, it’s the uncertainty that is worrying her as she watches the place she calls home change each day. She continued: “I feel really really sorry for the holidaymakers, it’s heartbreaking to walk around and see them all packing up and know you aren’t going to see them again or at least how you used to. “It’s horrible seeing all the empty plots where the caravans used to be, everyday you go down and there’s another one gone. The before and after is just absolutely heartbreaking.” Another holidaymaker who has had caravans at the site for around 25 years had her caravan scrapped two weeks ago and said the whole thing has been terrible. She said: “We decided to get rid of ours because it was too old anyway to be moved. We paid £1,050 for it to be scrapped which was money we couldn’t afford. “It’s been heartbreaking because even though my van was almost 38-years-old I had modernised it and we’d paid over £2,000 for new windows and doors. It’s hard-earned money and it’s just gone. Then we had to pay £1,000 for the privilege of having it scrapped. It’s terrible.” She claimed she has also witnessed people trying to buy vans for “peanuts” and scrap men trying to outprice each other for business. She added: “It’s sad, really sad. People are just trying to sell stuff now, it’s really really sad.” LT Management Services, which runs the caravan site, has been contacted for comment.