The areas that need improvement:
* The showers:
-The lights in the showers are operated by sensors rather than switches (despite the sign in the shower indicating a switch) and these sensors don't work very well at all. Sometimes the light would come on in the shower and sometimes I'd be jumping and waving my arms and I'd still have to shower in the dark.
-The temperature and power. The shower rooms are next to the washing up room and when someone uses the hot water in the sinks, the showers slow to a dribble and you have to get closer to the shower pipes so you can still get water on you. This burnt my shoulder a few times because one of the pipes was really hot. For my husband, the showers stopped altogether at one point and he had to stand there soapy and cold for a while until it began working again.
- The drainage. There are three showers and only one drain in the middle shower with a hole between the cubicles that allows the water to drain to the middle shower. After a busy period, there is lots of hair and dirt in the drain hole and if you are showering in the middle shower then you end up standing in the dirty water that pools up from your two neighbours.
* The men's toilets were filthy according to my husband.
* You have to pay a pound for some water in the family bathroom and you have to pay 20p for a short use of the hairdryer or plug socket in the ladies. I always find things like this quite petty and poor value. The 20p didn't dry my hair and I have quite fine hair, so you're looking at an extra £1 a day or so per head of hair you need drying.
* The water in the swimming pool was filthy (the smaller toddler pool was okay though).
* The noise at night was unreasonably loud. The rules state minimal noise between 10pm and 7am but this was not enforced. It was gone midnight when it quietened down on the first night of our stay. The pitch we were on was very small and by a main walkway so it was a high-traffic area, and there was loud music and talking from the adults as well as screaming from loads of children running around. I'm not in favour of a strict and silent campsite, but the behaviour and noise were beyond normal, and it disrupted the following day's early start.
Bucklegrove has the potential to be 4 or even 5 stars, but in its current state, it is not well-kept and definitely not worth the money. Stay here only if you're looking for a place to get drunk and let your kids run around unsupervised.
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