“Britains Richest Gypsy” Loses License To Run North Wales Mobile Home Park

Written by Harry Turnbull

Flintshire County Council has ruled that a business owner colloquially named as Britain’s richest Gypsy could not provide adequate proof that he can afford to maintain a residential mobile home site in North Wales.

Alfie Best might be worth an estimated £745m and own luxury cars and a superyacht but councillors in Flintshire said his company had failed to provide evidence it could fund the cost of the upkeep of Willow Park in Queensferry.

The shock verdict formed part of a slew of reasons Mr. Best’s company Wyldecrest was refused a site license including one of his lieutenants David Sunderland being described as ‘not a fit and proper person’ to act as manager.

Residents had raised complaints with the Council’s Licensing Committee about numerous matters when the site license came up for renewal, citing concerns about fire safety, water supply, electrics and ground maintenance on the site – as well as a ‘lack of evidence’ that sufficient financial resources were available to maintain the site.

Flintshire County Council’s licensing committee met to discuss the site’s license renewal but Mr Sunderland failed to appear.

Cllr. Mike Peers, committee chair, said the company had failed to pay the license renewal fee or to provide evidence of how they would rectify all the problems identified by council officers.

He also said the committee did not believe Mr. Sunderland could effectively manage the site containing 80 mobile homes from company headquarters in Essex.

Having considered the application the Committee resolved:

1. To refuse to grant a caravan licence pursuant to Section 7 of the Mobile Homes (Wales) Act 2013:

The application is considered to be invalid for the following reasons:

(a)  The applicant has failed to pay the required fee;

(b)  The applicant has failed to provide an adequate fire safety risk assessment, as evidenced by the Fire Officer;

(c)   The applicant has failed to provide an adequate EICR as requested; and

(d)  The applicant has failed to provide evidence of sufficient financial resources to demonstrate that the site can be adequately and properly managed.

2. The Council is not satisfied that the proposed manager, Mr David Sunderland, can be considered to be a fit and proper person

Mr Sunderland failed to respond when asked for his response as Mr. Best has relocated to Monaco according to news media reports.

The licence refusal was hailed as another victory by Willow Park Chairman of residents, Ken Pierce, who said:

“Some may think elderly people can be pushed around but we have proved if you are organised you can fight back. This is a victory for us and for common sense.”

“Two years ago when annual pitch fees came up for renewal, inflation was raging and Wyldecrest was rubbing its hands at the prospects of an 11.1% rise.”

Ken had other ideas and persuaded more than 30 locals to oppose the rise and fronted up his arguments at a tribunal, which eventually saw a figure of 5.5% agreed.

Ken’s argument was that Wyldecrest had failed to fulfil its obligations by maintaining the site which contains 80 homes. Similarly, last year’s increase of 4.6% was opposed and the resolution process is currently taking place.

Wyldecrest, which runs more than 100 mobile homes sites, has now lodged an appeal against the site license refusal.