Getting councils to provide M/H stopovers

[Biggarmac]

There are local councils and groups working on the "Portas Plans" for town centres who are asking for input about bringing more trade to town centre. I have got involved in the local group and they are now looking at what facilities are needed to make a designated place for motorhomes in the town.

 

The place is Biggar which is on the A702 between the M74 motorway and Edinburgh. Motorhomes are already allowed to park and stay overnight, but there are no notices to tell people that. There are places now where anyone can stay, but they are not immediatly apparent to people driving through.

[747]

That sounds very encouraging and is to be commended. Well done for being involved.

 

If you have time could you forward the details of the scheme to Scarborough Council as nobody there seems to have a grain of common sense regarding motorhomes.

[Guest pelmetman]

747 - 2012-07-10 4:29 PM

If you have time could you forward the details of the scheme to Scarborough Council as nobody there seems to have a grain of common sense regarding motorhomes.

 

I think you could change Scarborough to everywhere in England *-)..................

[Guest Tracker]

Just back from a long weekend in Holland where we spoke to Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and German motorhomers whilst camped on Aires. ( The French don't usually communicate because they refuse to speak the one language that seems to unite the rest of Northern Europe - English!)

 

When we asked if they had visited the UK the common reply was -

 

"We went to England once but it was expensive and unwelcoming with expensive caravan sites and no provision for camping cars - so we do not go back"

 

We agreed with their sentiments and added that whilst attitudes were very slowly starting to improve in some towns nothing much has changed overall and where there were facilities they were not widely publicised or widely available which, added to the irksome weather patterns, is why we gave up on UK holidays preferring to nip over the water even for short breaks.

[Biggarmac]

In Scotland it is normally the rule that you can park up unless there is something to say you can't! Visitors don't know this and most places don't give you any help in finding a sensible place to stop for the night.

The group I am working with had no idea of the needs of Motorhomers and this is probably the same in most other places. It is up to those of us who do know what is needed to mach sure that the information is given to our local councils. I am not going to want to park overnight in my local town, but that is where I can have the most useful input. If other people got in touch with their local retail business groups and gave them the information about the spend from tourists using Motorhomes they would also start to bring pressure on the councils to provide facilities.

 

Come and stop in Biggar and tell the traders you are in a motorhome to make sure that proper facilities are provided soon!

[BGD]

Tracker - 2012-07-10 8:03 PM

 

Just back from a long weekend in Holland where we spoke to Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and German motorhomers whilst camped on Aires. ( The French don't usually communicate because they refuse to speak the one language that seems to unite the rest of Northern Europe - English!)

 

When we asked if they had visited the UK the common reply was -

 

"We went to England once but it was expensive and unwelcoming with expensive caravan sites and no provision for camping cars - so we do not go back"

 

We agreed with their sentiments and added that whilst attitudes were very slowly starting to improve in some towns nothing much has changed overall and where there were facilities they were not widely publicised or widely available which, added to the irksome weather patterns, is why we gave up on UK holidays preferring to nip over the water even for short breaks.

 

 

 

Although it is only anecdotal evidence, I have to say that I have consistently heard exactly the same message from mainland-European motor-homers that we encounter on our very regular travels around Spain/France/Portugal etc.........

 

Quite a lot seem to have been over to Britain once, but almost none have ventured over again.

 

Perhaps interestingly, I've not hear the British weather mentioned much as a problem by such people.

It is the lack of aires/places to stay overnight, together with the (to them) ludicrously high pitch prices and parking charges/restrictions that are mentioned time and time again as the reasons not to return.

 

And as we all know, there are an awful lot of these people; they ain't poor, and they spend money when on holiday.....quite a lot of money.

But they seem mostly to decide never to go back to Britain after their first experience.

Very sad, and economically utterly daft.

 

[Mardee]

Your post reminded us that we haven't been to Biggar for some time. We used to visit for day trips in the car when we lived in Glasgow. It would be a great place to stay in our Motorhome.

I remember Taylor's ice cream and a very good Fish and Chip shop as well as other places to eat.

We hope to visit soon and take home some ice cream in the freezer compartment of our fridge !Regards

Margaret and David

[Guest pelmetman]

Saw a French camper at the services on the M1 ;-)...................I think he was lost :D

[747]

Earlier this year, I contacted Asda. They have a huge 24 hour Supermarket with 24 hour fuel at the Gateshead Metrocentre. There is parking for larger vehicles and I thought that it is an ideal stop for motorhomes as it is very close to the A1.

 

I explained in my email that they could benefit from m/homes buying a lot of shopping (why lug it a long way), there would be a good chance of m/homes being low on fuel and they would sell more breakfasts in the Cafeteria.

 

Remember that they are owned by Walmart, who have always been RV friendly in the USA..

 

I got a promising reply that said it would be put forward for consideration .... then nothing. And the reason why? ..... a private company enforces the 2.5 hour maximum length of stay in the car park. The Metrocentre has tens of thousands of free parking spaces, why do Asda need to put a limit on when nobody else does?

[pepe63xnotuse]

It would be interesting to know how many councils have had provision for(..or "turned a blind eye" too), MH parking and/or "overnighting",only for it to be withdrawn altogether due to misuse..? (rubbish being left,discharging of waste tanks etc...)

 

Just recently,there have been forum members posting to say how they'd witnessed fellow MHers dumping their tanks over laybys and carparks!? :-S

...although,on the "Dumping grey waste" thread,a good many didn't seem to see much harm in it(.."worse happens in China" etc)...and it seemed that some thought his only crime was getting caught!? *-)

 

(..there was even a photo put up on one thread,of someone emptying their thetford cassette down a road side drain! 8-))

 

Now...even the staunchest of MHer has got to admit that, that sort of behaviour/attitude is not going to endear us to anyone.. :-S

[Madmaggott]

There is an area just outside of Fishguard that has been used for ages as an overnight stop.  Last year the council 'legitimised' this area by putting up a sign detailing the types of vehicle authorised to use the places and stating that 'no overnighting or cooking in vehicles' is allowed.  There is also a 3.5 tonne weight limit although no charges as yet.

I emailed the council when the notices advising that this was to be implemented went up.  I pointed out that this was an ideal place for an 'aire' type parking place especially as there used to be a public WC there so waste disposal facilities could be cheaply installed.  I gave links to the various advisary sites so they had full details of the type of facility that I was suggesting and I explained why it would bring extra trade to the area.

I did receive a reply which stated that there are plenty of camp sites in the area and that it was the policy of the council that campers use these.

I did respond, reiterating the 'parking not camping' explanation and the foreign visitor point of view but was told in no uncertain terms that they considered the matter closed.

I don't know how these blinkered councillors can be reached.

 

[pepe63xnotuse]

I wonder what their reasoning was for "enforcing" this?

(...maybe "local" campsites were losing trade..and they approached the council?...)

 

This earlier thread,relating to St Annes,is interesting...A chap from their parking dept posted some sound,real-world reasoning(...there's also a tidy little "summing up" post by crinklystarfish ;-) )

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=27383&start=1

[Guest pelmetman]

Its because of responses like that and the high cost of UK campsites, that of the 64 nights we have spent away in the camper this year only 2 have been in the UK *-)............We will spend 2 weeks this month on UK campsites as we are away with tugger friends who have never been abroad 8-).............

[Biggarmac]

The comment about using local campsites was one that I heard when the group started. It takes a bit of time to bring people round to the concept of airs type stopovers. This is why we need to get involved locally as councillors and traders need to keep being given the facts about M/H spending power. One voice is often not enough.

[LordThornber]

Some ignorance of the subject though?

 

Consider this.

 

Mr & Mrs 1st timer trundle over to France. They stay on Commercial sites. They haven't got the foggiest about Municipals & Aires, they may not want to neither.

 

Would they really be paying any less than here in the UK? I think not.

 

Ergo, Mr & Mrs 1st timer to the UK will have paid through the nose on Commercial sites and even if they've bothered to join one of the "big 2" clubs, (and use sites), they'll still be paying more than at home on Municipals and/or Aires.

 

Whilst I appreciate the French et al are quite correct about Rip Off UK for camping, a little research would reduce their camping costs by using CL's. We can't do much about expensive fuel & wine can we?

 

What a brilliant idea though about utilising the Mary Portas caper to possibly get some local camping areas off the ground.

 

My local council has just realised that charging sky high parking fees in the Town centre is killing the place when elsewhere locally is free.

 

So it's now free parking all weekend - result.

 

Martyn

 

 

[Madmaggott]

We hardly ever use UK campsites; if we do intend to stay over for more than a night we will use CLs.  For one night, en-route stops we use pub car parks or lay-bys.  We holiday in France and whilst there use a mixture of aires and sites (ACSI) according to the length of time we intend to stay.

We bought the MH with the intention of touring the UK but found that it was so difficult to find reasonably priced overnight parking within useful distance of towns/attractions that we soon gave up on that idea.

British towns do not want our custom, full stop!

 

[Guest pelmetman]

Madmaggott - 2012-07-11 9:11 PMWe hardly ever use UK campsites; if we do intend to stay over for more than a night we will use CLs.  For one night, en-route stops we use pub car parks or lay-bys.  We holiday in France and whilst there use a mixture of aires and sites (ACSI) according to the length of time we intend to stay.

We bought the MH with the intention of touring the UK but found that it was so difficult to find reasonably priced overnight parking within useful distance of towns/attractions that we soon gave up on that idea.

British towns do not want our custom, full stop!

That's my feeling entirely ;-)...............As far as our councils are concerned they'd rather find a reason not to do something than do something *-)................so sod em :D...............I'll spend my pennies abroad B-)

[Losos]

pelmetman - 2012-07-10 7:46 PMI think you could change Scarborough to everywhere in England *-)..................

 

Not quite everywhere, Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk has a very enlightened motorhome policy, it has provided five dedicated MH parking places at it's Ram Meadow car park, I've seen the parking warden put a ticket on a car that parked there, and entry to the five bays do not require going through the height barrier, the real bonus is that the cost is less tha any other car park in the town.

 

But, it has to be said that, generally most towns in UK just don't care about motorhomes.

 

[Guest pelmetman]

Losos - 2012-07-11 9:21 PM

pelmetman - 2012-07-10 7:46 PMI think you could change Scarborough to everywhere in England *-)..................

 

Not quite everywhere, Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk has a very enlightened motorhome policy, it has provided five dedicated MH parking places at it's Ram Meadow car park, I've seen the parking warden put a ticket on a car that parked there, and entry to the five bays do not require going through the height barrier, the real bonus is that the cost is less tha any other car park in the town.

 

But, it has to be said that, generally most towns in UK just don't care about motorhomes.

Well BSE is a lovely town, I still work for a shop there ;-)..............So that's one down how many thousands to go :-S

[Losos]

Losos - 2012-07-11 10:21 PM

pelmetman - 2012-07-10 7:46 PMI think you could change Scarborough to everywhere in England *-)..................

 

Not quite everywhere, Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk has a very enlightened motorhome policy, it has provided five dedicated MH parking places at it's Ram Meadow car park, I've seen the parking warden put a ticket on a car that parked there, and entry to the five bays do not require going through the height barrier, the real bonus is that the cost is less than any other car park in the town.

 

But, it has to be said that, generally most towns in UK just don't care about motorhomes.

Edit to add - The cost for 4 hours is about £1.20 so you could stay all day for £2.40 I'm not sure what the policy is on overnights but I did see a Dutch MH there on two consequtive days so possibly that's allowed as well.

And, amazingly, so far I've seen no rubbish or anything from MH's being left to spoil the place. It is just a car park 'tho so not a 'scenic' spot!!!

 

[Guest pelmetman]

Losos - 2012-07-11 9:36 PMAnd, amazingly, so far I've seen no rubbish or anything from MH's being left to spoil the place. It is just a car park 'tho so not a 'scenic' spot!!!

So where about is it?.............. walking distance of the town centre and the Abbey? ;-)

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

Well that's 5 vehicles accommodated, only another ( how many thousands ) still to go ! !

:-(

[ian81]

pelmetman - 2012-07-11 1:15 PM

 

Saw a French camper at the services on the M1 ;-)...................I think he was lost :D[/quote

 

 

...could have been us a couple of weeks ago!!! Not lost -just visiting family.

 

The only other French MHers I have seen / spoken to are ex pats who like us need to return for family business.

 

Sadly the UK by its failure to be MH friendly is missing out on tourist revenue by its failure to provide suitable facilities. Shame the tourist people at visit England dont talk to continental MHers.

[ian81]

pelmetman - 2012-07-11 1:15 PM

 

Saw a French camper at the services on the M1 ;-)...................I think he was lost :D[/quote

 

 

...could have been us a couple of weeks ago!!! Not lost -just visiting family.

 

The only other French MHers I have seen / spoken to in the UK were ex pats who like us needed to return for family business.

 

Sadly the UK by its failure to be MH friendly is missing out on tourist revenue by its failure to provide suitable facilities. Shame the tourist people at visit England dont talk to continental MHers.

[Minstrel]

We were recently on the Isle of Wight and at Shanklin it is possible to parkin the car park on the front, but you may not even use your motorhome toilet, let alone make a cup of tea.  What a stupid rule, how can they enforce it?