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The family of a woman who died six months after an air conditioning duct fell on guests at a Pontins resort in the UK are demanding answers from the Jersey-registered firm behind the holiday park.
Wendy Jones had been staying at a Pontins site in Somerset when the ducting and part of the ceiling in the entertainment centre collapsed on to the families below.
While Pontins used to operate a resort in Jersey, it has not done so for many decades, but the company behind it remains headquartered in Jersey.
The incident involved the collapse of approximately 40m of structural ducting and ceiling sections, exposing live damaged electrics.
Eighteen people, including 68-year-old Mrs Jones, were injured.
Mrs Jones spent the last six months of her life in hospital before she died on 4 August 2019.
Avon and Somerset Police said a post-mortem examination found a "clear link" between the injuries she had sustained in the accident and her subsequent death.
The police investigation into her death is continuing.
An Avon and Somerset Police spokesperson told the BBC: "Detectives remain open-minded about the cause of the ducting collapse and continue to provide updates to Mrs Jones's family about what is an extremely complex inquiry."
The force confirmed corporate manslaughter, health and safety and gross negligence offences were being considered.
Pontins' owners – a Britannia Hotels subsidiary named Jinky Jersey registered in New Street, St Helier – said the collapse was "an unfortunate accident that could not reasonably have been predicted".
A statement by Jinky Jersey said the collapse was due to a failure of internal fixings that could not be checked.
But Mrs Jones' son, James Havard-Jones said the company should be "held to account" over the incident at Brean Sands Holiday Park.
He told the BBC that, in the five years since the incident, Mrs Jones's family has never received any correspondence from Britannia head office.
"They could've shown some humility, some decency, some humanity," said Mr Havard-Jones.
In the statement, Pontins owners said: "It has not been appropriate for us to seek to locate and engage with Mrs Jones's family at this time."
Separately, Pontins staff accuse the chain of neglecting former sites, and discouraging employees from raising health and safety concerns.
Britannia Hotels, which bought Pontins out of receivership in 2011, also runs more than 60 hotels across England, Wales and Scotland.
Britannia has been named by consumer group Which? as the "worst hotel chain" for 11 consecutive years.
Pontins has also been awarded the title of "worst holiday park" in the same survey.
Last month, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) served Pontins with an unlawful act notice after an investigation found multiple instances of race discrimination against Irish travellers – including creating a list of common Irish surnames labelled as ‘undesirable guests’.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, slammed the holiday park operator's "shocking overt race discrimination" and "culture of denial".
“We remain deeply concerned about these discriminatory practices. They were instigated and supported by senior managers and their leadership failed to take any action or accept corporate responsibility.
“Such unlawful and discriminatory behaviour is completely unacceptable, and it must never be tolerated.”
Pontins, owned by Britannia Jinky Jersey Limited, was found to have committed "several clear breaches" of the Equality Act, including:
The practices were originally revealed by a whistleblower, who shared the list of ‘undesirable guests’ with the EHRC in 2020. This led to the equality watchdog entering into a legally binding agreement with Pontins in 2021, to end the practices and prevent further discrimination.
However, the EHRC terminated the agreement in 2022 and launched a formal investigation, after Pontins failed to comply with the agreement’s terms.
By law, Pontins must produce an action plan to set out how they intend to meet these recommendations by 9 April 2024.
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