Caravan homes

Yes it is true...the cheaper homes are constructed of chip board which is make up of fibre wood chips and glue...the glue is flammable when heated to a certain temperature.

Yes it does.

This is a list I found of Park Home sites in Bourenmouth...

http://www.ukparks.com/searchresults.asp?sType=type&county=10&sField=parkhomes&order=AddressTown&sort=asc&page=1

None appear to show links to IOM companies

Yes there are plenty, I bought a static caravan on a park, the previous owners had taken a single bed out of one of the bedrooms , leaving just one bed in that particular room, making a bed up and making sure it was immovable was no problem, and dirt cheap, the problem was the mattress, I thought maybe a fiver for good thick foam would do the job, the price for 4" foam was unbelievable!!
Then I saw an ad' in a local paper, it was a caravan breakers yard, I paid a visit, every thing you could wish for, I got what I needed for £3, had a wander around it was a little gold mine.
Try 'caravan breakers UK' onto your search engine, and good luck.
You will of course need to find the wall studs in your van to screw these into but that's not difficult.

That depends whether you buy or rent the static or caravan, buying a static will cost around £25000 a caravan £10000 upwards, renting static will be around £500 per month, depending where its located, caravans are usually a lot cheaper as it will be per night, depends which part of the country, also beware a lot of static and caravan parks close in the winter months, all though some will be open, few anomolies though with these, heating bills are very high due to poor insulation, there wont be any phone connected, you cant have post delivered to either, and most parks there is a law stating they have to close for 1 month in every 12 months.

you will need planning permission (even if you are a gypsy)

you need to talk your local planning office.they normally have a duty officer who will advise you if you call in.
development in the country is very constrained outside a settlement boundary. the Local Development Framework or Core Strategy will specify what they normally allow +where.
one exception is if you are making charcoal and need to be on site 24-7.
it depends on previous use of the site; number of visitors you expect; local services; road access ...

There are also strict rules on materials and placement of park homes due to fire risks, gas canisters, and health issues of condence/damp and formaldahyde off-gassing

Your latter point was right...use a map to plan the route and then tell the Sat Nav to go from A to B via C,D,E etc.
Haven't found one you can programme to avoid hills, narrow roads etc..which is why coaches keep getting stuck.

This is a minefield and full of pitfalls so BEFORE you sign anything have it checked over by a legal expert.

Most likely you will have to buy the caravan from the site owner. Very few will allow you to move an existing caravan to their site and the site rental can be high, £200 per month is not unusual and then you have to pay for your services like electricity, water and Council tax. You pay this every month even though the season may be only eight or nine months long.

A large majority of sites close for a few months in winter, usually from about the end of October to about the beginning of March. Usually you can get access to your caravan for maintenance purposes in the winter but that's about it. A very small number stay open all year round.

Ask about the age limits of the caravans. Some sites insist on a maximum of ten year old caravans so you will have to remove yours, at your expense, and buy a new one, every ten years and yes you can only buy a new one from the site owner. Most ten year old static caravans have scrap value only.

Most sites will allow you to rent out your caravan when you don't need it, the best ones can organise this for you but, you guessed, they charge a commission for this. You will need to ask the site owners for details of this but as far as I know there is nothing to stop you doing this yourself if you wish.

Ian