Elderly couple and 97-year-old on lockdown at Craig Tara fear they will become homeless if forced out

Andrew Mair, his wife Irene both 77, and her mum Greta Skinner are on coronavirus lockdown at Craig Tara.

The couple at Craig Tara in happier times.

As well as all being over 70, Andrew and Greta Irene’s mum have to self-isolate for 12 weeks as they have underlying health conditions, making them high risk of becoming ill with Covid-19.

The Mairs, who have been married for 57 years with four children and seven grandchildren, headed to the Haven holiday site to their caravan of 20 years to escape their Hamilton home as renovation works took place at the beginning of March.

But they claim bosses at the Haven holiday resort told them last week they had 24 hours to leave.

On Monday, March 23 they were told to pack up and vacate the site, as the UK entered a lockdown, they were initially given until Tuesday at 5pm, before their daughter, Lorraine Cleaver, made site staff aware of new Scottish Government guidelines.

Their Hamilton home is a building site.

On Friday, March 27 they were then handed a letter which left them in a panic, as site bosses told them they were agreeing to stay at “their own risk”, but no one would be available to carry out any repairs required, should the power go out, or a water pipe burst.

The Advertiser understands that a further five families are currently on lockdown at the resort, with one left with a power cut, that was not repaired forcing her to use a friend's caravan.

The couple’s daughter, Lorraine Cleaver, 52, has slammed the heavy-handed approach taken by Craig Tara bosses to deal with the difficult situation.

She said: “My mum and dad are terrified right now. They are frightened of this pandemic. They think they are going to become homeless. They would love to go home. But there’s nowhere to go. The builders have had to down tools because of all of this, their house is a building site.

“My dad has been so stressed; I’m worried he might have a heart attack.”

Lorraine, who stays in Alloway, has provided them all with a lifeline as she travels to and from Hamilton to pick up essential prescriptions for her dad’s heart condition and her gran who is registered blind, and takes tablets for nerve pain.

Renovation works have stopped due to social distancing measures at the couples home.

The caring daughter has been left frustrated by the park’s actions, and she was astonished to hear from her dad that a security guard broke social distancing rules, which Haven strongly deny.

She said: “They are lucky that I’m here or else they’d have nothing. I go down and drop off food, but the security staff are always making it difficult for me. Telling me I can’t stay for long. I just go in and drop off food at their front door.

“My dad saw that one of the security guards had went into my gran's caravan to give her a disclaimer to sign. That’s not right he’s much younger than her and should be following the guidelines.”

Lorraine says the treatment of her family who have been left living in fear is ‘unforgivable’.

She added: “They were wrong if Boris Johnson is allowing them to stay, they should be able to stay.

“Why are Craig Tara being so heavy handed? My family own their caravan. Giving them 24 hours notice is really not good enough.

“Now they are allowing them to stay, but its obvious they want them to leave. We’re not looking for them to do their shopping. They are staying because they can’t go home, and they have to self-isolate.

“The lack of human connection in really frightening time is unforgivable.”

Haven have advised that services could be affected during lockdown, but all gas, electricity and water supplies are still available.

The park claim they did not know the reason why the family required to stay, but have agreed to let them stay.

Its understood that another five families are stuck int he holiday resort.

A spokesperson for Haven, Craig Tara told the Advertiser: “We were not aware of the specifics of Mr and Mrs Mair’s or Mrs Skinner’s need to stay on park when their daughter first approached members of our team as unfortunately, she did not make the reasons clear. Since speaking to them, we have reviewed their situation and they are now able to stay at our park.”

“Our security and other park teams have maintained social distancing as per guidelines during this lockdown period.”

“The safety and wellbeing of our owners, guests and team remains our number one priority. We would like to thank all our Owners for their support and understanding throughout this period.”

The Advertiser also asked if they could confirm if there were still five family’s or summer staff at Craig Tara, and if anyone is self-isolating with symptoms of Covid-19. 

They responded: “Following NCC guidelines we must register all owners wishing to remain on park and any reasons why they need to remain. We are unable, for data reasons, to specify how many families remain on park but none are self-isolating with symptoms of Covid-19.

"We can also confirm that there are no team members currently living on park and all have returned to their primary residences.”

Scotland is in lockdown. Shops are closing and newspaper sales are falling fast. We're not exaggerating when we say that the future of the Ayr Advertiser, and the vital local news service we've provided since 1803, is under threat.

Please consider supporting the Ayr Advertiser in whatever way you can – by paying just 90p for a copy of the paper, when you're shopping for essential supplies for yourself and others, or by subscribing to our e-edition here.

Thanks – and stay safe.