According to surveys highlighted by the Caravan Club, club members are twice as likely as the public at large to be concerned and actively working to protect the environment. They have some tips on helping to do your bit on site on their website but here are a list of five ways you can do your bit for the environment whether you’re out in your caravan or at home. They are all very simple but little things add up to a massive reduction in energy consumption and carbon monoxide emissions over time.

1. Hang out your clothes. This one works both ways – hanging out clothes instead of tumble drying them saves the power (and money) spent drying them mechanically, and as an added bonus, the clothes will not wear out as quickly as they won’t be under so much stress.
2. Buy local food. This saves on food miles, and if the food comes from a local grocer or butcher, it’s likely to have less packaging too. If you are travelling in the UK, this can also be a great way of exploring the local area – Britain has a great selection of regional cheeses in particular that will be a joy to sample.
3. For your bonfire, choose matches rather than lighters. Lighters are full of chemicals, made of plastic, and considered disposable items, so most end up in landfill. Matches are biodegradable, as are their packaging. For the ultimate in eco friendly fire lighting, use recycled cardboard matches, as they are recovered from paper rather than virgin wood.
4. Go to a carwash. A weird one this! Car washes, like dishwashers, if used properly use less energy and water than cleaning by hand because they are so much more efficient. Of course, you have to offset the distance you are driving to the car wash, as well as how long you are going to keep the dishwasher to make sure you are making full use of the raw materials.
5. Holiday in the UK. Obviously, a caravan or motor home is an ideal way to take advantage of holiday destinations that don’t require a plane trip. This will make a massive impact on your personal carbon footprint, as flights are so carbon heavy they can wipe out months of following smaller ways to help the environment. As well as this massive advantage, you are supporting the UK economy and spending less of valuable holiday time travelling. A good situation all round!

For details on the government scheme to reduce emissions by 10% in 2010, go to http://www.1010uk.org/

Remember to cover yourself against the unexpected with Caravan Insurance

As it’s now time to start planning the first trips of the spring, I’ve been looking for inspiration of where to go in my motor home. My favourites are the Lake District for walking and Cornwall for surfing, and I’m sure I’ll be going to both a fair few times over the coming months! The brilliant thing about motor homes is that it makes it very easy to travel around the UK and have pretty much whatever kind of holiday you want to, within reason – beaches in Devon and Cornwall, windswept moors in Yorkshire, Welsh mountains and the rugged beauty of the Scottish Lochs. Here are a selection of beautiful images taken by motor homers around the UK, which I think really capture the beauty and variety that can be found in Britain –

I hope I won’t spend too much time like this little motor home – lost in a lay by! But because of my atrocious map reading skills, that’s often where I’ll end up!

Sometimes, though, I can’t help yearning for the views you can’t find in Britain, like this one –

Of course, I will normally need to find a campsite rather than just pitching up like the homes in these pictures. Wild camping (sleeping anywhere other than a campsite) is illegal in most parts of Britain, though it is allowed in certain parts of Scotland and the Lake District. If you want to go wild camping, check the area for regulations – in some area only two people may camp at a time.

If you have a favourite motor homing spot, please let us know in the comments!

Lifesure Group is going from strength to strength these days, partly thanks to the move to their new home in Eaton Socon. The specialist insurance broker had outgrown their previous home of thirty seven years at 34 New Street, St Neots. The victorian three storey building with many small rooms had served it’s purpose but it was not physically possible to find space for the expanding workforce of the growing insurance firm.

34 New Street

It was decided to find a new home in 2007 and Fenice Court in Eaton Socon looked ideal with a purpose built building that was a two storey open plan affair. Air conditioning is a big bonus and after eighteen months staff are still appreciating the facility.

Ben Williams, the general manager said ‘The main reason for the move was that basically the firm could not expand any further at the old building, we had reached capacity there. However, the benefits of the move are many. I would never have thought that simply working in a modern, open plan building would improve output so much. We are so much more a team here on the two large open floors. At our old address the staff were fragmented in many small rooms and it was a lot more difficult to run efficiently’.

3 Fenice Court, Eaton Socon

Lifesure is now expanding rapidly in spite of the current economic climate, adding three new staff to the workforce for their new caravan insurance scheme. Their motor insurance niche markets are still going strong as well as park home insurance and motor caravan insurance. Small wonder Lifesureman has a big smile on his face….