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I am sorry to say this but all you people do is moan about Billing. I am sorry you have had a bad time but people go on holiday to have fun. Billing has sorted out the rides. When I went last weekend the only poo on the floor was left by the ducks and there was no rubbish on the floor. People are friendly and helpful so I don't know why people are complaining. Or are you the people who sit in the corner and moan who ruin the holiday not only for yourselves but for the people around you?

We had hoped for a peaceful, relaxing weekend but were very disappointed. The pitch was fine but the noise at night was dreadful. This mainly came from groups of males who were obviously drunk. At times we felt very unsafe and worried about the safety of our children. The first night was bad but the second was worse with an even larger group of males (about 20) drinking and driving around the site. The noise went on on both occasions well into the early hours. We were also disappointed with the rundown funfair and shopping facilities. Having made a written complaint to the site we received a very standard reply with no attempt to assure us it wouldn't happen again.

I have just visited Billing for the R&R weekend, and was robbed of my Peugeot Scooter on the first night which was on the rack of my motorhome, what can you say, I know (PLEASE DO NOT GO THERE IT IS INSECURE). I reported the incident to security but there was only one person for the whole site, I shall be informing the ARVE magazine and the MMM of this.

Pure leisure or Pure greed.

It seems the only thought is profit and not the people that provide it. Is it not time to give the residents and visitors something back? The camping areas are a joke the tourers are being squeezed out by an invasion of statics, the train's gone the pools gone the fair and amusements are so dated they are no longer an attraction. Couple this with new and old statics scattered everywhere and without some input to the site the repeat visits and the solid resident base will soon dry up.

PS what happened to the pool and gym starting March?

I read the reviews and thought OMG no way will we go there but as I couldn't find anywhere else I bit the bullet and booked for 3 nights. Well what a surprise, we had a great time.

As they had some bad weather a few days before it was pretty wet but we found a lovely spot and put the tent up. Later we went to the Willow Lake pub on site, all the staff were friendly and helpful, we also ate there that night and at £22.00 for 2 adults and 4 kids you really cant go wrong, in fact we went back the next night as well.

From the man on the gate, to the women in the main office everybody was lovely.

The toilet and shower blocks did get a bit messy by the end of the day but with how busy the park was I suppose this is only to be expected, but they had a great team who put everything right first thing next morning.

There are only 2 things I had a problem with, 1 was the gift shop and how expensive it was, ok your on holiday and expect to pay a little more but this really was a lot more, the other was the wrist bands for the fair, the cost was ok but when finding out the restrictions on their use I found it cheaper to buy the tokens.

Other than that I really can't fault the park and wouldn't hesitate to visit again.

We stayed at Billing to travel to Silverstone and met up with some friends for the night. We had a great time. I nearly cancelled after reading the reviews on here! Get a life you moaners... it is a lively site with live bands and great car shows.. so it won't be for you if you don't like that kind of thing.. It was a little muddy but it's only the good old British weather to blame. And just for the record ducks do poo... which idiot moaned about that?? THERE WAS NO DOG POO.. THE SECURITY WAS FINE. and I took my caravan and got a lovely spot by the water and found staff helpful and friendly.. Trust me this site is fine my 14 year old son can't wait to go again he loved it.

I really don't know why people are moaning. I've been to this place 3 or 4 times now and its great. I don't know why people are moaning about unwanted people getting on the site. It's so hard to get on the site, you have to pay £10 just to park in the car park.

The food is great, great atmosphere, great facilities. The rides are looking good, they have three or four new rides now.

Maybe, for the new season this year they have sorted all the problems. I don't have any faults with the park.

[Note that this reviewer does not actually seem to have camped here]

I have read some of the reviews wrote about Billing Aquadrome. I would like to say. we arrived in the morning, parked in the free fairground car park at the entrance. All the staff in this park are very helpful. We bought two wrist bands for our children at £9 each. Great value for all day. Some reviews said the rides were outdated this was NOT the case. All the rides we saw were almost new & a few new rides since we last visited. We had a picnic, played crazy golf, went on a pedal boat, went gokarting. We had a great day out. The park was full of people having fun. We will return to this park again soon.

I don't know what some people writing these reviews are moaning about. We had a great time. I would recommend this park to anyone with a small family. For camping & fun.

I have just read some of the reviews of Billing Aquadrome. I think a lot of these reviews are very unfair. We have just had 2 days camping here with 5 children. They have had a great time, crazy golf, pedal boats, go karting, the funfair was very good value we bought wrist bands at £9 each to ride all day on the rides. With 5 children we have to have a budget & this kept them occupied all day. A lot of good rides for all ages. The pub food was good, evening entertainment good. Showers not the cleanest but this is a family camping site with its own amusement park, pubs & shops on site, not a 5*Hilton Hotel. All in all great value for money.

The last 3 or 4 reviewers must be employees or picked the 2 quietest weekends of the year. I have a static and stay here 11 months of the year, so you could say I've seen it all. It's like being in the Gaza Strip during the summer months and in winter the local thieves love the quiet and darkness. Static caravan break-ins are common place. Security's main function is to attend the break-in and arrange to have the door boarded up, rather than throw out the wandering hoodies, thieves and trouble makers.

My biggest mistake was believing the sales hype and not doing proper research before buying my place. I can't wait to sell up and leave like most of my neighbours.

Security is a joke, anyone can get in as long as they pay. If you walk from the local estates or gypsie camp site over the road you get in for free and can cause as much trouble as you want.

Loutish and lewd behaviour, gangs of youths drinking all night and causing trouble, fights, loud music to all hours and drunk speeding drivers. Welcome to hell! If you want a nice family orientated holiday you're in for a shock. If you're looking for a quiet place to retire, don't even think about coming here. I've been to many campsites around UK and Europe and never experienced a place quite like Billing Aquadrome. I've enjoyed the Kent Custom Bike show run by the local Hells Angel chapter with my son who was three yrs old at the time and felt safer, I kid you not!

I don't let my kids out when it gets dark and keep in constant contact when they are out in daylight hours.

I've been threatened when walking back home after a night out in town with friends.

I wouldn't recommend the place to anyone. The shame is that there are many nice families who visit and stay here, but the idiots that are allowed to come on site and act with impunity spoil the place for the many.

COME ON Pure Leisure, do something about the security here, it's a laughing stock. You're alienating your customers and losing them faster than you bring in new mugs. You say Billing is a fun place for all the family, do something so that it is a fun safe place for the whole family before you lose complete control.

I've just come back from Billing Aquadrome with my friend and her dad and we stayed in tents on the campsite. Billing is good it has many different pubs to go to for meals and a drink and also for the children that get bored there are numerous parks and there is also a fair there too but I must say there is not a lot of rides to chose from at this fair!! At times the place can get pretty busy so maybe your children will need to be supervised in this sort of environment?? One of the problems at this campsite is that it used to be pretty quiet and there used to only be allowed families but now there are quite a few young youth's. Another problem is that in the morning you will most likely be woken up by noises but it is not too bad. Just to warn you there are many birds there i.e swans and many more so there will be a lot of poo so you will have to be careful of where to stand!!! There are many refreshments from drinks to ice creams so no need to worry about that and also the people who run the fair rides are very friendly but some can be a little flirty so you will need to be careful other than that Billing is a amazing place so you should maybe go there for a family outing ....p.s I enjoyed it a lot xx

Camp ok, areas clean and quiet at night while we were there.

Static caravan had dirty fridge, dirty carpet, leaking tap in kitchen, no lock on bathroom door, and only 1 out of 3 lights in living room working. We reported this to reception but nothing was done. Woke up late 1st morning to discover no water to wash or clean teeth - apparently planned repair work but we were not warned.

Vinnies restaurant was lovely with really friendly staff and wonderful food. Take away was also friendly and large portions of food - too much for me to eat - and cheaper than we pay locally.

Cars are checked for passes when they go in, but anyone can walk in at anytime of day without being checked.

Children didn't like the look of the funfair, and didn't go on go-karts or pedalos as no one else seemed to be using them and they did not want to be there alone.

We usually camp in the summer but would not want to be on prebooked part as they were crammed in too close for our liking.

Had never heard of the place until 2 months ago and although we liked Northampton and other nearby tourist attractions we would not choose to go back to this park.

Stayed here over Easter. It could be a great site if they spent some money on it. There are gypsies coming in and out all day and night, and yobs from the local estate. You have to lock everything or it’s gone. Gypsies seem to bring in stolen caravans, strip them out and no one seems to care. Will not go again, holidays are for relaxing not being on high security alert.

I've just come back from Billing. I was not going to go there after reading all the bad reviews, but as I had already paid to go, I did not want to disappoint my two kids.

Well, when I got there I was pleasantly surprised. The staff were very good, the place was clean, there was no dog or duck mess anywhere, the toilets and the showers were cleaned twice a day, the bins were emptied regularly, the onsite chippy was very good. There was noise but by midnight it was nice and peaceful. All I can think of is that the people who complained should be living in sheltered accommodation [or maybe Billing has got its act together since the previous reviews - webmaster]. You will get noise: it's a camp site. In all we had a great time and we are going back for the Japanese weekend with another three families.

You must remember you are going camping.

If you want luxury BOOK A FLIGHT

Just passed by and stopped for the night. Was here 2 years ago for 1 night, its like going for a meal here. If you have a good one then there are no complaints but if you get a bad one well you will wish you hadn't come.

Been here 6hours and so far my boy has been pushed and kicked by a 5 year old hoodie in the toilets and another young girl was seen throwing things at the ducks. Usual scumbags that i saw 2 years ago, this place will never change.

We first went here a month ago and couldn't understand the bad reviews, till we went at the weekend. Baghdad was a safer place to here. Bare knuckle fighting, a riot, police removing hundreds of people from site and officially closing the site down for the night. Very little security for the site of that size and our dog was attacked by a resident's pitbull.

Drunk drivers, kids driving their parents cars, cars speeding and handbrake turning, loud music and having to stay up the second night to protect my family as I felt the on site security were not up to the job. We won't be going back and currently trying (unsuccessfully) to get a full refund.

Don't go here, don't go near it and for goodness sake take note of the comments above. A book called cool camping for kids has found us some nice and safe places to go since and has restored our faith in camping. If the British army needs somewhere to train they should use this site.

We stayed for 4 nights at the end of July, for the Japanese Car weekend. We stayed in our own touring caravan and a pitch with hook up.

We've been staying here for a few days every summer for the last 10 years. The cost of staying has leapt up over the last few years so much so that it begrudged me paying for my son to sleep in a pup tent outside of the awning, considering I've already paid extra to have him get in anyway. So not only do they charge per person you then get charged again for his tent.

We used to bring our 2 dogs, but even they stayed at home this time. Maybe Billing will charge us for using our own cycles next year. ;)

We were also disappointed that Billing still charged TEC for use of the field despite there being several visitors and campers for the event. Some of us did chose to use the Hook-ups and may not of even shown up at attending the Japanese Car weekend.

he

On the positive side now. The security did give us some comfort knowing that they were keeping an eye on our show cars throughout the night, all of the security that I did speak to were very professional and polite.

There were 2 thefts from cars whilst at the show, but they were left unsecured with cash and a purse on show. Tempting fate maybe, but it is a shame that in the world we live these days some members of the public have no respect for other peoples property, hardly something unique to Billing Aquadrome.

The toilet cleaning staff once again had a battle on their hands, Billing can't control the mess made in the showers or the toilets, but they did a cracking job considering the age of the blocks.

So will I go back? Yes .......BUT the pricing needs to be a little cheaper £30+ a night for a caravan + Awning, Hook-up, Towcar + Showcar, 2 Adults, 1 Child is not a cheap weekend away. For the petrol I used to take the caravan away I could have stayed in a cheap hotel and just visited for the days of the show.

[From the new manager of Billing Aquadrome]

There can be no doubt that the Aquadrome has suffered over the years. It has suffered with the same issues experienced by every caravan park in the UK. That is local youths hell bent on coming onto park to cause trouble, would be thieves taking advantage of those folk on holiday, poor British weather and generally the same troubles experienced in all walks of life, in all venues, all cities and towns right across the UK!

In recent months the management at Billing have installed CCTV cameras. Evidence from these cameras will be used to prosecute any wrong doing! They have also installed over 800 meters of perimeter fencing to further improve security on park. A number of undesirables have been removed from the park and will not be allowed to return.

There is a serious effort going on behind the scenes to keep improving the park. feedback from those who understand this has been very welcome and the majority of people have been grateful for the recent improvements.

The park has also now commenced building of the "Pure Aqua" leisure centre at a cost of some £5M.

The reality is that this is a small town with in excess of 4000 people here on busy summer months. Those people who leave their cars unlocked, goods on display and generally think that the place is one where the undesirable members of the community avoid, need to wise up! This place like every other place in the UK can have undesirable people on it.

As a guest you should be sensible and behave exactly as you would anywhere else.

Billing Aquadrome is a great place to holiday and to own a holiday home and the one thing that I do know is that all the team who work here are very committed to the cause and as a team this place will continue to move forward.

People are very quick to criticise when anything goes wrong. It is how things are dealt with that makes the difference.

As the new manager on the Aquadrome, I am well aware of its historic problems, but at the same time there are lots of positive experiences that you don't hear about because the very nature of the human being is to complain and not praise.

Please rest assured any complaints are dealt with in a timely and professional manner and used to help us move forward.

Billing Aquadrome was already in a decline before Pure Leisure came aboard but the decline has be made worse because the company that had taken over had not got a clue about running such a large site. Having said that they seem to have learnt a few lessons and we seem to be on the up. The one thing that spoils Billing is Pure Leisure's hunger for money, its money money money and any which way they can and you get that impression right from the start.

I currently have a Holiday Home on the site and like a few on here I would advise to leave buying a HH on the site for the time being, come back in a few years and lets see what has happened.

If you buy and you don't like it your going to lose a lot of money, not only is the resell value dropped big time but you can't even say the Home would be allowed to stay on its plot of land.

A lot of us who do have a Home here love it but we remember how it used to be and keep our fingers crossed for a return to those days.

If you still want to come then make sure you’re sited well away from The King Fisher, a constant source of trouble and noise and don’t bother complaining because you won't be heard.

I have recently bought an old caravan, my first, so I thought it a good idea to go to Billing as its only 60 mins drive from my home. So I booked. No problems, that holiday was great except the dirty toilets. I thought ‘one more chance’ so off I went not booking this time.

When I got there I was in a long queue as it happened to be a bank holiday weekend. I had my sister and nephew with me. I got to the booth and asked for 2 nights stay. The attendant told me I had to pay 3 nights £75 for 4 adults. I said my nephew is only 14 and 2 adults 2 nights. If I could have turned around I would have but the cars behind were pipping at us. The man in the booth said not my problem, the management have said same price to all. I paid. He had no change, and had to get some from the office. This made the other cars pip even more.

We went in to the park, found our friends and told them. They said complain but no one was around to complain to, only the man I spoke to in the booth. I got ready for my weekend break to find a rottweiler next to me. No large breeds on the site! We settled for the night had a few bevies as you do, to find fires being lit further down the field so I rang the office and left a message. 1 hour later the fires still burning so it wasn’t a barbecue. The roti is barking like mad and I phoned and left a message. I saw no security come after either complaint.

The toilets are still a disgrace. What more can I say. Just this: I’ve been to another large site and it was brilliant: clean, people there to help if problems come up, great. I’ll not go to Billing again even if they offer me a million quid, it’s rubbish.

I would agree with Andy Cressey the park is improving slowly but that is only has it take time for new facilities to start as they need planning permission etc.

To the people who moan that property has been stolen well would you leave it in sight when you are at home? I think not.

If a thief is wanting to nick something they are going to do it we can only prevent it as some thieves can get violent and it’s not worth risk your life for it.

People who complain about security I’m sorry you are so wrong they do a fantastic job. Whether it’s because there is trouble or you are needing help as you are ill or injured they are quick.

I had a holiday home for a couple of years now before that I stayed with parents in theirs.

In the days of the old owners there was more trouble then I would say it has decreased now since the new owners have taken over. I can recall when the park shuts in the days of the old owners of the park then when all the homes and sheds get broken into and the things that were being stolen you would need a vehicle to come on and take these so where the security then that’s what I call very strange security. Then the new owners take on the park and when the park shut under them there was not one home or shed broken into. Now what does that say? The security are doing a good job and that includes the ground and office staff so well done. Billing Aquadrome are doing as much as they can to improve the park. It doesn’t help when you have kids throwing rubbish in the lake and not caring for the surroundings and to dog owners pick up your dogs’ mess.

In 2007 my parents paid £20,000 cash for a caravan, last Easter 2009, my partner and I upgraded the caravan, they gave us £4,000 back, then when we went to pay this years fees they have gone up by £900. Billing saying we are new owners and have to pay more...

My neighbour got hit at New Year by someone on site. He was told to forget it as the person concerned would probably damage his caravan...

2 years ago my son and friend was badly beaten up, we was told the boys and family would have to leave, they are still on site..

Drugs, guns and stolen cars were removed last year from behind us, upsetting a complete week end.

Now we find that all visitors/ friends have to pay £10.00 to get in. They will get it back if it’s not on a weekend event, or it’s pay just like the public.

Billing may tell you they are making improvements, but believe me there are more people leaving than staying. We would be out of here too if it weren’t for the finance we were stupid to take out. But we will keep trying to find out how to get out of this hell hole without going bankrupt...

On a goodish note the swimming pool is nearly finished for those who wish to bother. And they are bringing the train back. But no doubt they will ruin that by charging the earth.