Hastings holiday park offers free breaks to Grenfell's 999 heroes

A holiday park in Hastings is offering free breaks to emergency service personnel who were called to deal with the horrific blaze at Grenfell Tower earlier this month.
Beauport Holiday Park offering  holidays to emergency services from London.

Stewart Ide (Sales Manager) pictured with Laura Bates (left) and Loren Rafique (right). SUS-170629-103344001Beauport Holiday Park offering  holidays to emergency services from London.

Stewart Ide (Sales Manager) pictured with Laura Bates (left) and Loren Rafique (right). SUS-170629-103344001
Beauport Holiday Park offering holidays to emergency services from London. Stewart Ide (Sales Manager) pictured with Laura Bates (left) and Loren Rafique (right). SUS-170629-103344001

At least 80 people are believed to have been killed in the blaze on June 14.

Staff at the Beauport Holiday Park, on The Ridge West, were so moved by the disaster they wanted to do something to help those affected.

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Stewart Ide, sales manager at the park, said: “We all as a team came up with the idea.

“We were going to get some clothes and take a van up there, but obviously everyone has already done that.

“But we said wouldn’t it be a great idea if we could give a holiday to the emergency services.”

Stewart posted the offer on the park’s Facebook page on Friday and said he received a ‘phenomenal’ response.

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By Saturday, the post had been viewed by nearly 120,000 people.

He said: “We did email the London Fire Brigade and the rest of them and no one got back to us, so we thought we would ask Facebook to see if anyone knew anyone in the emergency services and it went absolutely nuts.”

So far the park has given away 13 breaks to members of the police, fire and ambulance services and their families, with one more still up for grabs.

A luxury three-bedroom lodge is currently being furnished with a huge new television and new children’s toys, with Beauport staff determined their special visitors will have everything they need for a relaxing time.

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Stewart said: “We are stocking up with bread and milk and that. It’s just so they can come and chill.”

He added: “It’s nice to give something back.”

The park is currently in discussion about extending the offer to some of the families who were forced to flee the blaze.

Beauport is run by Park Holidays, which has its HQ in Bexhill, and Stewart hopes to persuade other Park Holiday resorts to follow suit.