Couple endure daily mudbath to reach home (From Worcester News)

Kempsey Common couple endure daily mudbath to reach home

1:50pm Thursday 28th February 2013 in News By Neil Watts

SODDEN: Nigel and Janice Jarvis on the muddy land they have to cross to reach their mobile home near Kempsey Common.

A COUPLE who live on a countryside caravan park say they have to wade through a field of deep mud to reach their home.

Nigel and Janice Jarvis have to haul shopping through the mud, which is knee-deep in parts, and fear that the emergency services would be unable to reach them in an emergency.

The couple, who are both in their early 60s, have lived at the park off Kempsey Common, near Worcester, for about eight years but the field has become almost impassable because the continual wet weather in the past year has turned much of it into a quagmire.

They are the only permanent residents at the park as the rest are used as holiday homes.

Now they are calling for a hardstanding track to be laid down to access the site.

Mr Jarvis said they have contacted the owner of the caravan park, David Harrison, and Malvern Hills District Council for clarification on the ownership of the field but no solution has been reached.

“Looking from their (the owner’s) side, I can’t think why you could not allow a road across there,” he said.

“Every other property around the common has got a road going to it across common land.”

He said the hardstanding would be “really quite cheap and quick to put down” and could be completed in a day.

The retired couple, who estimate they have paid more than £19,000 in rent during their time at the park, also have concerns about power cables running along the ground, the cesspit, an open well and the handling of utility bills.

Mrs Jarvis said: “Every-body is happy that it’s in the country and out of the way, that’s part of its charm.

“But there’s a difference between charm and danger.”

Mr Harrison, who is one of the Malvern Hills district councillors for Kempsey, would not comment on the matter other than to say he does not own the field.

In 2009 wooden posts were put up by Kempsey Parish Council in a bid to curb anti-social behaviour caused by people driving and parking on the common.