I doubt it since caravanners considerably outnumber the motorhome fraternity and there are some Motorhome owners who prefer campsites with proper facilities and are happy to pay so the demand for club sites will still be there
UK Motorhome parking Camping-Car Park may be of interest?
- Thread starter Speve
- Start date
cmcardle75
LIFE MEMBER
Yes, motorhomes are a sideshow for the main clubs.
glenn2926
Free Member
Yeah we have. The next council to me have at least three in the Yorkshire Dales. Skipton, Settle and Ingleton all have overnight spaces just for motorhomes in their car parks. There’s the one in Canterbury there’s one in Hawick. There’s one in Lytham St Anne’s. We just need more councils to follow.
GJH
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Rather than available land, the main issue will probably be whether the organisation can obtain a caravan site licence and planning consent for the places they wish to use.
OP
OP
From what I can see of them they like to take on existing parking areas and then instal water and waste and electric and barrier, so you are correct and hopefully they will get the licences applying in a sensible way ,looking at the questions in the survey They are looking for info on what campers do and use when on an aire? I suppose to enable them to provide an insight for planners etc.
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Lots more.BUSBY.
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Does not matter,,they are there..BUSBY.
I don't see the availability of land as a barrier. Planning consent might be an issue. The 6 metre separation for fire safety also applies to obtaining a caravan site licence so Camping-Car Parks won't be allowed to cram them in like sardines. It won't be cheap to operate in the UK so expect pitch fees to be higher than in France.
Our nearest Waitrose has said it intends to convert part of its car park for "leisure use" so an outfit like Camping-Car Parks could lease their land. Other landowners with allegedly under-used car parks like town councils and retail park owners might follow suit. Also racecourses - Cheltenham already does this with the CMC.
Yes but for all this why do you need a middle firm creaming off a profit.
OP
OP
They will be getting a lease payment without the hassle of organising anything?
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Companies do not want to go into businesses that are not their mainstream. For one thing they would have to employee people with knowledge to run just a few parking places which is not feasible.
Geoff
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I suspect it is deliberate to ask existing customers if they want the facilities.
That way they can show statistics to councils/planning authorities that show a majority of XX% of people questioned said 'yes', without disclosing that they only polled existing users and not others.
Geoff
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Used them a couple of times and happy - come and go as you please, water and dump, near 'civilisation' and not restricted to 5 units so could find space by just turning up............. best of luck to them over here though
GJH
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Yes they could, and many have been encouraged by a minority of motorhomers (not the ones who whinge about the lack of aires but do nothing positive to try to create them). Apart from the lack of an economic advantage in such a move, the majority of private car park owners are not interested because they are first and foremost retail management companies and do not want to become involved in managing caravan sites (which is what their car parks would be in law).
GJH
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But what is a "sensible" way? Sometimes what appears "sensible" to a minority interest group does so because they haven't taken other factors into consideration.From what I can see of them they like to take on existing parking areas and then instal water and waste and electric and barrier, so you are correct and hopefully they will get the licences applying in a sensible way ,looking at the questions in the survey They are looking for info on what campers do and use when on an aire? I suppose to enable them to provide an insight for planners etc.
Any change would be a non-starter if it threatened to interfere with the existing use of the car park (e.g. campers wanting to stay until 9am when the car park is filled up by commuters from 6am).
The overriding factor will always be that it does not conflict with the overall public interest.
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When the Caravan act was laid down motorhomes were a very rare sight, both the increase in numbers and the improvements in technology surely means that its time to revisit this now rather myopic legislation.
I really dislike the majority of the offerings of the Caravan Clubs and would like nothing more to see a good workable alternative.
I think it sounds like it could be another nice alternative. The negativaty is more a reflection of people’s personalities. Why not let a company that is willing to do the research , that has successfully done it in another country, do a bit of research here. They aren’t daft. They know the infrastructure isn’t here so it seems likely that it would be dearer but some of us might be happy to pay for the comfort and convenience. They might have timed it just right with Covid19 reducing the number of people wanting to travel across the channel.
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Maybe Camping-Car-Park will be able to get the Caravan/camping laws changed and the clout to persuade carpark operators - they have a 'model' and the organisation 
That did make me laugh
On a more serious note, I think one of the problems they may face in the UK is selling councils the concept of automated unsupervised operations. Enforcement of the 6m rule (French parking space) springs to mind, although how many car/coach/lorry parks have such a rule? Although I seem to remember seeing one or two, we don't seem to have 24hr automated fuel pumps unless they are at 24hr supermarkets, certainly not at closed premises. If they were to start from scratch over here, part of park and rides may be suitable locations. They're meant to encourage local buisness after all.
I know there are some, but does anyone know how many council owned campsites there are?
I wasn't suggesting that entire car parks be turned into MH aires. The freehold owner would close off and lease part of their car park to someone like Camping-Car Parks who would become the sole occupier for legal purposes, with full responsibility for Planning consents and Caravan Site licensing, not the freeholder.
Why would property companies that own retail parks with an increasing number of empty large retail units and a corresponding drop in income from business rents not want to consider an approach from Camping-Car Parks to lease part of an under-used car park area. If it was viable of course they would be interested.
Our town council did propose to build a new leisure centre on the main public car park they still own, having already sold the biggest one (mainly used by commuters) to Tesco who built a supermarket on that site. Councils are desperate to get more money from their assets.
The biggest obstacles to Camping-Car Parks' idea are firstly, public opposition to the Planning proposal for change of use, in case it might become an unofficial Traveller encampment, as well as the Planners' goal of car-free urbanism and prioritising residential development on every square foot of available land. The biggest risk is one of losing more sites like Baltic Wharf, rather than gaining new aires. Motorhomes and caravans are not a priority for land use.
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I presume most people have noticed that Camping Car Park are now branding themselves as
1st European network of staging areas and service areas
When we were in France 2/3 months back thet were changing the site signage.
Although I haven't found any outside France yet.
1st European network of staging areas and service areas
When we were in France 2/3 months back thet were changing the site signage.
Although I haven't found any outside France yet.
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Are there any other city centre sites?
Camping-Car sites are simple - an electronic barrier, marked parking areas with electric and water and dump - motorhomes only. Using spare capacity on existing carparks makes sense.
Baltic Wharf is next to the Floating Harbour and about half a mile from the Centre. Comparable urban campsites do exist in Cardiff, London, York, and there may be others. In the absence of local knowledge, how endangered they are is a matter of speculation, but the spread of ULEZ and proposed bans on all diesel vehicles are obvious threats. The environmental policy trend is in the opposite direction to what MHers want.
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An aire wouldn't have to be in a city - there might even be competion from towns to take up the opportunity of more revenue and footfall in town centres...... well... there might be.... think positive
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Our experience was far from simple. We tried entry but failed. We thought the machime did not like our Polish Debit cards. There was a Freenchman waiting to exit who came to help. He used his carda(we would pay him cash) and got an entry ticket, but it would not open the barrier. He called the management number who tried and failed to open the barrier and in the end they cancelled the payment.
We went away and have not tried again.
Geoff
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OP
OP
With their system if all spaces are booked the barrier won’t accept a new entrant until a pitch becomes available do you think that may have been the cause?
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Once you have a card entry is automatic - scan the card - you pay to leave! - easily done on your phone.
glenn2926
Free Member
The local authorities near me don’t have all this six metre Carry on . They just have larger parking spaces marked out with green painted lines. They are not and do not pretend to be campsites. They are just somewhere to overnight. There are no emptying, refilling or electric facilities. I don’t know if there would be any objection to getting chairs out to sit on car passengers probably sit on chairs in these places to have their sandwiches etc.
Is this in the UK?
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We could only see 2-3 occupants.
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