THE owner of a Cumbria holiday park is set to unveil the latest line in luxury caravans at what has been billed the biggest free event of its kind.

More than £1 million worth of luxury caravans will be ushered through the gates of Silverdale holiday park this week for a major unveiling of next year's models.

The park's owner, Michael Holgate, is inviting Cumbria residents to come along this weekend and deliver their verdicts on the shape of holiday living in 2017.

All five of the UK's biggest caravan holiday homes makers have been persuaded to send their next year's models to Silverdale in advance of their official launch. It will be the biggest free event of its type in the county, and provide a sneak preview of the latest ideas which manufacturers have been working on this year.

Mr Holgate said: "Anyone unfamiliar with recent advances in holiday caravan design might not expect to walk into somewhere looking more like a five-star hotel suite.

"Standards of luxury and the range of modern equipment they incorporate have made Britain's caravan holiday home industry the envy of the world.

"Today's models are also very environmentally friendly with many energy saving features and superb levels of insulation to keeping heating costs to a minimum.

"We were delighted when the makers agreed to send us their latest line-up, and we'll be very interested to see what's on offer and hear visitors' comments."

Last year, Silverdale park supported its trade association, BH&HPA, in a design project with TV architect George Clarke to re-imagine the traditional caravan holiday home.

The Holgate family can claim to have helped to make caravanning more amazing as his grandad Billy ran a touring caravan manufacturing business at Silverdale 60 years ago. It formed the basis of today's holiday park, but the then forward-looking designs helped win export orders from across Europe; a fully restored original model is on display at the park.