'I'll move if you give me a refund' says Northampton holiday park resident refusing to leave as protest

Trisha Trotter, 61, purchased a lodge at Billing Aquadrome in February last year in the hope of enjoying her retirement years there.

But she claims she has been dogged with difficulties since moving in.

At first she said her television aerial sockets did not work, electricity was intermittent, her washing machine only operated at certain times and her wooden pontoon was rotting in parts.

A tree stump appears to be growing underneath the live-in lodge and there are leaks inside, she says.

But despite her lodge being under warranty and despite having issued the site managers Pure Leisure Group with a snagging list of jobs that needed doing, she said the problems persisted. She also claims she has had to fork out extra funds to complete work herself.

It has meant that, even though all site residents are supposed to leave the holiday park in January, she has chosen to remain.

The site owners, whom she pays more than £3,600 a year in ground rent, have even switched off her gas and electric in a bid to turf her out, but she is sticking to her guns.

She said: "This is a bit of a protest, I'm fighting for myself, but I'm hoping this will allow others to do the same.

"I'm prepared to go away if they agree to reimburse me for all my money - for the cost of lodge, the lot.

"If not they, will need to get someone up here to get the TV points working and get everything else fixed."

Pure Leisure says it cannot talk about Trisha's individual case, as the matter is a "private contractual issue."

However, managing director Trevor White said the site is in breach of its licence if it has guests staying there for 12 months of the year.

"Both Billing Aquadrome and the Pure Leisure Group disputes the claims made by Ms Trotter.

"She is in breach of her site licence, and the at site licence is not something discretionary, it's a stipulation from Northampton Borough Council."

Former teaching assistant Trisha said one of her cars was also padlocked by site managers recently because she drove it within the holiday park grounds against its health and safety rules.

But she said her stubborn stand against the site owners is more a point of principle.

"If you bought a brand new car that had a set of bald tyres on when you bought it, you wouldn't accept that would you?

"I'm just asking them to put a new set of tyres on to my lodge."