General News
12 July, 2026
Lake Fyans leaking long-time annuals
There are more vans for sale at Lake Fyans Holiday Park than anyone can remember. For many families who have spent years — and in some cases decades — returning to the lake, that’s not a small thing.
Annual sites at Lake Fyans have traditionally changed hands only occasionally. Families return year after year, children grow up spending summers there and neighbours become lifelong friends.
Now, as uncertainty continues to overshadow the holiday park’s future, another consequence is becoming apparent: some long-term siteholders have decided not to wait.
The uncertainty stems from a long-running dispute between the park operators and the Lake Fyans Recreation Reserve Committee of Management over the future of the park’s lease and responsibility for maintaining key infrastructure. While the Palenskys recently succeeded in the County Court, the committee has appealed the decision.
The operators argue that if the current holiday park licence is not transferred to a new operator when their lease expires in 2031, the holiday park would need to be relicensed under modern regulatory standards, requiring extensive and costly upgrades that could make the project commercially unviable. GWMWater has previously said it has no intention of closing the holiday park and that planning for its future beyond 2031 would be undertaken in consultation with the community and key stakeholders.
Philip Gitsham, who has been an annual siteholder with his wife Sandra for 16 years, said the change was impossible to miss.
“There’s quite a few annuals that have got their vans up for sale, no doubt about it,” he said.
Park operator Janine Palensky said the numbers backed that up.
“Normally we’d get maybe one to two every few years,” she said.
“At the moment I think we’ve got seven, and we’ve had about another seven sold in the last 12 months.
“They’re all selling because of the uncertainty.”
Sandra said she had never seen so many vans up for sale.
“A lot of them have turned around and said this was their main holiday park, and their family came here for years,” Philip said.
“They can see in five years’ time that the park is at serious risk of closing.
“When Janine and Darrin go, we go.”
Janine said she and Darrin had always tried to be transparent with annual siteholders because they had invested not only money, but years of family memories into their sites.
“I don’t feel that you could responsibly not tell people that they have a limited time,” she said.
“Regardless of whether you’ve paid $5000 for an annual site or you’ve paid $50,000, the value of what you’ve paid is irrelevant, because you pay what you can afford.
“For someone, $5000 can be a significant amount for them to be able to give memories to their children.”
For Philip and Sandra, Lake Fyans is a second home.
They’ve spent Christmases there with friends, watched families grow up together and found a place to escape the pressures of everyday life.
“We don’t want to go,” Sandra said.
Philip said he intends to stay for as long as he can.
“I don’t want to lose it,” he said.
“But my conscience won’t let me sell that on to someone else, knowing what could potentially happen to the park.”
Read More: Lake Fyans