Commercial Benefits of Motorhome Towns - Campaign

There are two strands to the subject of motorhome parking, overnight provision and daytime parking provision. I wonder if expecting the Club to promote overnighting wouldn't be a bit like expecting turkeys to vote for Christmas? It doesn't seem to be something they have supported in the past. 

Having said that there have been some good examples of local authorities making provision of overnight stays. Canterbury springs to mind and there are others as well. Perhaps the way to go is the promote the positive rather than the negative to persuade other councils there might be benefits in providing such facilities. 

Who should promote and co-ordinate it. I think that is the more difficult question to answer. The Clubs would be the obvious choice but is that going to happen. Perhaps Visit Britain could be more influential?

David

I've always considered the club as being backward in not coming forward, so to speak. People who are "anti" caravanners/mhs would probably be more amenable if the economics were spelt out to them. 

There was a joint survey with other organisations including the C&CC about how much we spend as tourists not so long ago. This should be repeated more often.

John, I agree with you that 'the system' works well over there, with communities happily accepting the provision of good MH parking (day and night) in aires in exchange for the (perceived?) benefit they bring.

we use several stop overs each way on both of our 'long tours' every year and call in and shop, get fuel/supplies/wine and use restaurants.

however, the Campingcaristes have been doing this with communities for a long time and they are happy to share the mutual benefits.

unfortunately, not so in the UK where MHs are a blight, despite great facilities at Canterbury and a few other places.

the CC has no interest in MH activities outside of the club, except to state that their view is that MH getting 'serviced' away from sites means encouraging wild camping....not so if there are other designated stopovers...and that they would be losing £25 a night to each van that stayed on an aire and not on a cc site....whatever benefit it deemed to bring to the host town.

i remember there was much excitement about the prospect of a MH aire at Lodmoor, Weymouth but the cheif objectors were the 'proper campsites' complaining about their business being reduced...

however, most aires users (£0-5 per night) certainly wouldn't be visiting Weymouth and spending £25 to go to a site, they'd just go somewhere else.

so, my view is, while a noble thought, don't waste your time, just go somewhere where your custom is appreciated.....and the sun shines a lot more.

we had this discussion on this forum many months ago and i got a pasting for being so negative re MH owners, and i could probably write a book on the pros and cons of allowing or not allowing aires/wild camping (call it what you will) type facilities in local areas, and my area Lee-on-the-Solent is an area which actively discourages overnight habitation in car parks, on the highway etc and sometimes for good reason

Having said that I agree with some residents concerns, if I lived on the coast at Lythm would I want to see a line of motorhomes blocking my view - almost certainly not 

we had this, now banned, although a few still chance their arm.

Negative publicity such as accused of littering the area, emptying waste tanks at the side of the road. I'm sure much of which is unjustfied and possibly down none motorhome visitors.

I have seen these particular actions taking place, with one guy having a hose down the kerbside drain, and i have confronted a few only to be told to foxtrot off, I normally do, after taking a photo, this simple act scares many, i agree 100 pct these are in the minority and spoil it for all.

People not just locals but visitors also were fed up of coming to LOS and not being able to park often because MH's were taking up 2 pitches, one to park and one to put out their picnic gear.

as to loss of business LOS is very very popular witnessed by the overfull car parks during peak season and the very very large queues at the numerous ice cream shops/vans, and the LC has spent a lot of money providing lots of childrens facilities along the sea front, so not sure lack of MH's in peak season would be such a great loss.

Not sure what the solution is, maybe, a relaxation of the rules and a lifting of the height barriers out of season, this could give the local economy a boost, however, we have an adequte 24x7x365 caravan/MH site between LOS and Stokes Bay and i am sure they would rather have the business.

share the opinion, i am sure of many on here, that the club are unlikely to pursue any venture that could take revenue away from the core business

i just pulled these stats off the internet

France is about 2 times bigger than United Kingdom.
United Kingdom is approximately 243,610 sq km, while France is approximately 551,500 sq km. Meanwhile, the population of United Kingdom is ~64.4 million people (2.7 million more people live in France).

Spain is about 2 times bigger than United Kingdom.
United Kingdom is approximately 243,610 sq km, while Spain is approximately 505,370 sq km. Meanwhile, the population of United Kingdom is ~64.4 million people (15.5 million fewer people live in Spain)

Maybe this is why MH's are seen as less of a blight on the landscape in these 2 countries, although in some areas of Spain the authorities are trying to stamp out wild camping. 

Commercial Benefits of Motorhome Towns - Campaign

Not the sort of campaign an individual can run but I would expect the Caravan & Motorhome club to take the lead on this - does it have a publicity officer working on this ?

What are other peoples views ?

Personally I would not like to see the club spending finance/resources (staff/time/money etc) on such a campaign as it would take away money from providing benefits for all its members.

A large town in southern France which we visit regularly has always had a small (and scruffy) Aire but this year they just completed a large car park. Shade is provided by solar panels. It’s just on the edge of the town and parking is FREE. So it’s not just visitors with motorhomes that are poorly catered for in this country, it’s all visitors.

Then as posted by Ruffs and has been pointed out on several previos threads on the subject the UK, and England more so,  are very crowded with sky high prices for any space that is available,with increasing pressures on LAs to make any space available for house building so the chance of any space being made available for any add parking/Aires is very much way down any list of priorities 

Yes - two strands.  Many of the responses are concerned solely with the overnight stays.  I dont know what the proportions are, but my guess if that more motorhomers are concerned about the lack of daytime parking.

I do think that this IS a campaign that the Club could get involved in.  I am sure the Club has previously published information about the benefit to the local economy of touring vans, so surely it is in a position to talk to Visit England and other organisations about the issues of motorhome parking.

I’m a motorhomer, hja, and I have no more concerns about daytime parking in town that the average car driver. Nor do I require overnight parking - there are plenty of sites for that. Why should I expect any concessions from a financially stretched local authority simply because I choose to drive a large vehicle? 

I see this as another example of want, want, want by motorhomers which gets us all a bad name and I suspect the suggestion of a commercial benefit to the towns is nothing more than that - a suggestion. At least two cars will probably be able to park in the space occupied by one MH so consider which is likely to spend more money locally, the cars which may contain families or one MH which is likely to contain only two people. 

I really don’t see that either daytime or overnight parking in towns is an issue for the club in any way other than perhaps supplying statistics of membership and it is certainly not something in which they should have a financial involvement. As DK said, turkeys and Christmas.