Motorhome owners are outstaying their welcome

[Ivory55]

Maybe, but I don't think it fully explains it. Poland is, of course, a much larger country than the UK, but the population is mainly concentrated in the larger towns and cities. In those, I would say that the population density is probably equal to, if not even higher than, the UK, simply due to the higher use of large apartment blocks that are a throwback to the communist era.
I'm not saying that people don't get frustrated over here, they certainly do. But the "I must write a letter to my local paper expressing my outrage" type thing seems a uniquely (and kind of charming now I don't live there!) British one!

It says on the net England 434 per sq k. Poland 124 per sq k. Slightly different

 

[RubyOptics]

It says on the net England 434 per sq k. Poland 124 per sq k. Slightly different

Did you actually bother to read my post before leaping to wikipedia? I explained, in detail, that yes, we have a lower population and a much bigger area to spread it over. But I also suggested that most of the population is centred around the larger towns and cities. So yes, our statistical population will be lower, but in terms of reality when you are in the cities and large towns, if feels and is not much different.

 

[Ivory55]

Did you actually bother to read my post before leaping to wikipedia? I explained, in detail, that yes, we have a lower population and a much bigger area to spread it over. But I also suggested that most of the population is centred around the larger towns and cities. So yes, our statistical population will be lower, but in terms of reality when you are in the cities and large towns, if feels and is not much different.

I did actually bother to read it and i just pointing out the actual numbers, I don’t know what feels like is only the actual numbers. But sorry if that’s wrong.

 

[RubyOptics]

I did actually bother to read it and i just pointing out the actual numbers, I don’t know what feels like is only the actual numbers. But sorry if that’s wrong.

Sorry, I was maybe a bit rude in my last post. Didn't mean to offend.

 

[Tombola]

"I must write a letter to my local paper expressing my outrage" type thing seems a uniquely (and kind of charming now I don't live there!) British one!

thats a big sections of "the brits" for you
whatver happend to keep calm and carry on

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[Boringfrog]

or too difficult \ expensive to manage effectively?

An honesty box and a couple of signs?

 

[RubyOptics]

An honesty box and a couple of signs?

I can't remember exactly where it was, I think it was somewhere costal though. They had an honesty box asking for a fiver per night. After a busy bank holiday weekend they had 15 quid in it. Seems that honesty is rather lacking these days.

 

[Jim]

thats a big sections of "the brits" for you

Is it though? People who write to newspapers are a minuscule part of an even smaller part of a tiny, tiny part of 1% of the population

 

[RubyOptics]

Is it though? People who write to newspapers are a minuscule part of an even smaller part of a tiny, tiny part of 1% of the population

Oh absolutely. But I must admit to taking guilty pleasure in reading local papers when I'm visiting friends or family in the UK. The "They dug up old Fred's park bench on Williamson Road last week and now what are the local ducks meant to sit under - Angry from Walthamstowe" type letters are just such a curiously and wonderfully British thing. The same way that (as Bill Bryson also noticed) the British don't really make separate queues for things like a train ticket. We make one queue and then go to the first available counter as its much fairer! Lovely, charming and just slightly odd when you don't live there anymore!

 

[Ivory55]

I guess it depends who a person knows and the circle they move in as this might influence their opinions on who is honest.

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[Jim]

Oh absolutely. But I must admit to taking guilty pleasure in reading local papers when I'm visiting friends or family in the UK. The "They dug up old Fred's park bench on Williamson Road last week and now what are the local ducks meant to sit under - Angry from Walthamstowe" type letters are just such a curiously and wonderfully British thing. The same way that (as Bill Bryson also noticed) the British don't really make separate queues for things like a train ticket. We make one queue and then go to the first available counter as its much fairer! Lovely, charming and just slightly odd when you don't live there anymore!

Most , I'm sure, made up by editors hungry for content.

 

[buttons]

Obviously I am on the side of the motorhomes here, but you have to think, if they don't want MHS there they are not going to provide parking for them, they want them on the sites, which you have to see the point of the people who live there, ok some vans might be 100 grand but that doesn't say they can park in front of someone's house that might have cost half a million.
We are a big minority outside of this group, and although it seems we should have dedicated parking the vast majority of people in the real world can't see the need.

Unlike cars, motorhomes are fully equipped, why do motorhomes need a parking bay in a prime town center or beach location. Park and ride sites outside of towns would keep everyone happy..

 

[RubyOptics]

Most , I'm sure, made up by editors hungry for content.

They should go into novel writing. I'm sure it was have a wonderfully dystopian/Jane Austin feel to it!

 

[Gellyneck]

An honesty box and a couple of signs?

They used to have that at Cairngorm car park however donations were next to zero so had to implement a fixed cost system.

I can't remember exactly where it was, I think it was somewhere costal though. They had an honesty box asking for a fiver per night. After a busy bank holiday weekend they had 15 quid in it. Seems that honesty is rather lacking these days.

I've even seen an honesty box at a fishing pond in Cornwall jemmied open with only a couple of dropped coins left on the grass below it!

 

[Toady]

I live in Pembrokeshire and am an FLT. That said, I tend to stay on sites in Pembs at this time of year as very busy. If I go off grid then I only stay one night and make sure I park at the back of a car park etc and not blocking views.

I have observed many MH owners parking directly on the sea front, blocking views and spreading out their table and chairs in National Trust car parks......stupid!

One of the best off grid sites was down in Dale. Observed vans pulling up, BBQ whilst blasting out music and emptying waste into hedge. Now blocked off. The locals will not put up with it.

Many sites are full in Pembs due to high demand so many MH owners resort to wild camping. I cannot blame them.

Before you ask, sorry, I am keeping the best spots to myself

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[franknjan]

Burry port update.
There are signs stating "No overnight parking" Our friend asked the owner of the local burger van. Apparently offenders are being fined £25.
Don't know if this is correct but we didn't bother finding out.

 

[Minxy]

We're currently at Ayr (Scotland) where originally you could stay all along the prom for free overnight in a MH however this has now been stopped and whilst you can still stay during the day if you want to stop overnight you can't unless you go into the official area which is chargeable. I don't know why this has happened but suspect it is because the prom area got overwhelmed with MHs stopping for days on end which I can well believe happened.

The only place along the prom where you can now officially stay overnight from April to September is in the new Ayr 'aire' which has 16 parking bays specifically for MH use, it is laid out with 5 central 'block' ones each 3 car bays wide and 2 deep, and the rest being long bays (the length of 3 car bays) at the side of the road with some next to the prom and others at the rear of the 'block' bays. There is a new temporary toilet waste disposal point (trailers which have large waste containers on them) along with a water bowser to rinse cassettes (although this was empty as it's just been put there) as well as waste bins for MHers to use. It cost £5 a night to stay from 6.00 pm to 9.00 am from April to September, free at other times of year and during the day. The only restriction is that you can only stay 1 night in 2 (ie 24 hour gap in between). In order to use the bays overnight you have to register for the 'Ring-go' app and pay through that (they make a small service charge of 15p for this, more if you want SMS confirmation, reminders etc but they are optional).

We actually stayed on it last night ... yes I know we did the unheard of and actually paid for once. We needed a stop as our intended one* wasn't available anymore so we'd gone to Ayr to stay at the roadside but as time was getting on we thought we'd give the 'aire' a go. We settled into one of the central spots and once I'd registered for Ring-Go (that was a pain in the bum) I managed to pay. It was great at first then the 'fun' started ... boy/girl races in their souped up cars driving in, round the back of us down to the far end of the car park then back again round the front of us only to go round again ... noisy and a flaming nuisance, we thought we were in the middle of a flaming race-track at times, later it got more 'exciting' as they discovered they had horns too ... at one point around midnight we had several of them sitting along the prom not far away from us beeping at each other for ages. Not happy bunnies but not a lot we could do and fortunately around 12.30 am it stopped and we had a good night from then on. (*We had planned to stay at Loch Doon but found that this was no longer possible unless we used the campsite, ie no free parking overnight at all anywhere near the Loch, okay during the day but not at night, and it was very full ... we don't 'do' sardines so didn't want to stop.)

In the morning the next door MHer came over and spoke to hubby about it all, he was going to get in touch with the council and tell then of the issues and that whilst it was a great idea to create the 'aire' where it was and the lack of control of the youths in their cars etc it just made it pretty much unusable and this was a mid-week night, I hate to think what it will be like on Friday/Saturday nights! As the MHer is a local chap he knew who to contact at the council and will hopefully get them to do something about it otherwise word will spread and it will become a white elephant which will be a shame, however the layout could do with some thought due to the need for cars to go one side of the central bays to get into the car park and the other side to exit, not idea especially since the local MHer said one of the cars nearly lost it as he was going too fast when going round the back of him!

We had a potter round and found some streets nearby which were suitable for stopping on for another night so remained on the 'aire' until around 5.30 pm then moved to a quiet side street looking over the large grass area behind the prom/beach, nice and quiet, not bothering anyone, so hopefully will have a more restful night; we'll go back to the prom tomorrow for another nice potter and sit on the beach then back to the side-street again so that hubby can watch the Scotland-England match tomorrow night. The shame is that if we hadn't had the issue with the 'aire', and if we were allowed to stop there for a consecutive night, we would likely have done so and paid again (shock horror! ).

 

[pandas]

It's not about that. There are two main reasons for wild camping. One is that sites are rarely where we want to be,eg. within easy walking distance of of shops, pub or beach etc.
The second is, that as pensioners, we have a budget & money can only be spent once. £25 to rent a piece of grass or gravel for the night OR spend it in the community, can't do both.

DP

In a car park right on the seafront in the Mumbles a Motorhome + a trailer parked up taking 2 parking bays, seemed like they were full timers so say 2 x £6.50 per bay, £13.00 a day must of been really good value compared to the cost of a property, or renting, or rates etc. Not for me but…

 

[pandas]

Broadwater Green, Worthing. Great cricket pitch and recreational area but one side was occupied buy half a dozen Motorhomes that looked they had been there for weeks. Not a good look and in my view a pity as it was detrimental to the location.

 

[stevewagner]

They should have 5 dedicated bays only for motorhoners/campervans .
PAID £10 for 24hrs
Max stay 48hrs

No more problems

I don’t think that would helps because when one pulls off another would pull on. Same problem just different motorhomes every 48 hours

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[JJ]

I blame Thatcher, insurance companies and Calor Gas...

JJ

 

[Reusables]

I don’t think that would helps because when one pulls off another would pull on. Same problem just different motorhomes every 48 hours

Yes but there will only ever be 5 bays occupied by motorhomes..
Say £15 to £20 for 24hrs.
This will pay for the line painting in a week.

No need for the council to do any other admin work if RINGO run the carpark and issue fines for noughty campers .

 

[GJH]

Unless I have missed it, nobody has commented on the history of motorhome camping at Burry Port Harbour/Marina.
Faced (like a lot of other places) with uncontrolled camping by people, some years ago Carmarthenshire County Council put resources into providing facilities when possible (I was asked to contibute because of the web site I used to run). Since then, though, there have been developments there, including construction of a new RNLI building, which resulted in a reduction in space and changes to the regulations governing the car parks.
Interestingly, numbers of motorhomes camping there increased dramatically when charges for camping overnight legally were removed (http://www.carmarthenshireherald.com/41810/motorhome-situation-cant-go/).
Councils have to balance (often conflicting) requirements from all sides of the communities they serve. It is when people abuse the solutions put in place to try to address such situations that the situation highlighted by the OP occurs.

 

[Lenny HB]

Broadwater Green, Worthing. Great cricket pitch and recreational area but one side was occupied buy half a dozen Motorhomes that looked they had been there for weeks. Not a good look and in my view a pity as it was detrimental to the location.

Not weeks they have been there for years some of them at least 10 years. Why anyone would want to live in a van on a very busy main road is beyond me.

 

[pandas]

Not weeks they have been there for years some of them at least 10 years. Why anyone would want to live in a van on a very busy main road is beyond me.

Agree and why there is not some restriction is also beyond me.

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[jongood]

Most , I'm sure, made up by editors hungry for content.

In the days when the newspapers offered a prize for the best letter friend s used to make money writing imaginitive letters.

When I was subsequently running my own business I felt the need to challenge a wildly inaccurate piece in the regional business magazine to be told that it was included solely on the basis of being well written and no t accuracy.

 

[Spriddler]

This thread has reminded me why for more than 20 yrs I've only toured abroad.

 

[Ivory55]

This thread has reminded me why for more than 20 yrs I've only toured abroad.

Yes a lot more room and quiet roads

 

[Tonks]

And this is the problem. Pay50 to 100 k for a MH. But refuse to pay 25 quid for a site. Eventually we will be banned from everywhere.

It's no such thing. Plenty of people pay nowhere near the price you quote for their motorhomes (and even if they did, that's their own business). People stay off sites for multiple reasons. Many people do a mix of both, sometimes on sites, sometimes not. And in the daytime many folk are using their vans to travel about and see the local area they're visiting. There are plenty of us who don't pitch up on a campsite and then not move for a week!

 

[tribalbrit]

It's no such thing. Plenty of people pay nowhere near the price you quote for their motorhomes (and even if they did, that's their own business). People stay off sites for multiple reasons. Many people do a mix of both, sometimes on sites, sometimes not. And in the daytime many folk are using their vans to travel about and see the local area they're visiting. There are plenty of us who don't pitch up on a campsite and then not move for a week!

Me included.

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