Aires in the UK

What a fantastic opportunity for the authorities to take the lead and install facilities to serve the visitors who clearly want to be there and are doubtless bringing money into the area.

zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

oops just woke up and realised its in the backward UK where the only way councils think is to punish people. Reap wot you sow 

What a fantastic opportunity for the authorities to take the lead and install facilities to serve the visitors who clearly want to be there and are doubtless bringing money into the area.

What an even greater oportunity to encourage the use of car parks in prime locations to encourage sustained usage by motorhomes and campers at the detriment of everybody else including locals.

I think the problem at the moment is just the sheer volume of motorhomes (and caravans) out & about. Ordinarily MHs would be tolerated but there is an extraordinary number in Cornwall just now, far more than I’ve seen at any one time in recent years. Cornwall has been described as ‘Benidorm on steroids’ and that’s spot on. The result is MHs are much more visible than usual, so people notice the associated problems more acutely, and everyone is fighting for a limited amount of space. As they say ....familiarity breeds contempt. All we can hope for is a return to normality some day soon and respect for the local communities and environment.

You have every right to be nervous, as you would expect all our beach areas are very crowded, but selfish MH/camper van owners are now a real problem in our car parks, fortunately the LC enforcers are clamping down on large MH's that dont fit into a dedicated parking space, rules say you must be able to park within the white lines, and there have been reports of people emptying toilet cassettes in public loo's, better than in the sea i guess.

So, as you say, " This sort of thing does not endear motor homers to the local population" but it is not just the locals, visitors are even more irrate when they see Mh's buying up 2 parking bays, and ignoring big new signs that say "no over night habitation",  or driving over the grass verges to avoid the height barriers.

But we have been here before and not to mention the 12 traveller vans that parked on South Sea Common earlier this week 

I don't altogether have much sympathy for local councils who complain all the time about motorhomes - do something about it! The enlightened councils will recognise the need for parking provision and hopefully do something about it which might even result in them making a bit more money. Also when a council makes a positive decision on such parking they are in a much better position to control misuse of parking elsewhere. For those councils that are not so enlightened then they have to use the powers they have but must also be prepared to enforce such regulations. If they don't want motorhomes parking overnight on local roads or car parks put an enforcement measure in place. If you don't want people filling up water tanks don't make taps accessible. If they don't want vans of any variety in their car parks put up height barriers. All it needs is a bit of joined up strategy. It needn't cost a lot of money. You either welcome or discourage but no point moaning about it.

David

well clearly David you dont live by the seaside, i do and i can assure you that Gosport and Fareham LC's, who manage the seafront from Gosport to Tichfield, have endeavoured to achieve most of what you suggest, but I have to say that although MH's/campervans are welcomed in some areas they are discouraged in others, hence the height barrier in some car parks but not all, but all their best efforts are thwarted by, yes a minority, but the minority is growing.

Take a look at the attached taken today at Stokes Bay green behind the life boat station at approx 1530 hrs. 3 MH's have gained access to the green, which is reserved for children to play etc, and as it is at or below sea level can be very boggy hence motorised vechicles are prohibited, but these chancers must have cut off the lock and chain from the gate and thought it a good idea to have their own private pitch by the sea. They were obviously also breaking corvid regulations by the very fact of the numbers present. The enforcer was present but was taking some stick so the police had been called. 

Not more than 1/4 mile from this area are 8 specially built parking spaces reserved for MH's, today 3 were occupied, why, they are pay and display and it would appear Mh owners dont like to pay, well that is the impression we get as they are never fully used, but we always have MH's parked on grass verges etc ,

As for MH's/campers helping local businesses, IMO they normally come fully stocked with all the provisions they need for their stay and apart from maybe buying an ice cream spend very little else.

The councils do provide taps to provide drinking water to the general public and all have a dog bowl near by to provide for fido, never seen a hose attached but yes have seen a water butt being filled, but that could have been a beach hut owner.

All our car parks have clear signs stating that no overnight human habitation is allowed and this is policed by the enforcer but only until approx 2200 hrs, the council discourage overnight stays because in the past it has been expensive to clean up the mess left by the said campers,

I have to say some of the campers we do get are those that live full time in their vans, who obviously do not like paying for camp sites although we have a very good 24x7x365 site at Stokes Bay. 

I think our councils cover most if not more than you suggest, but it would appear this is not good enough.

Likewise Argyle and Bute and northwards!!Sooo Soooo many motorhomes (Lots of them hired).Bring back total lockdown and sod "human rights"

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 well there was a report that said hire companys of MH's had run out of MH's to hire 

I think a major problem is that, many of current MH's have migrated from caravans to MH's for whatever reason and from their caravaning days understand the workings e.g. toilet cassette emptying, grey water etc, but the newbies have never had this level of up-bringing so they think it is perfectly acceptable to empty the toilet cassette in the public loo, of course there are worse places to empty this, which are being practiced but especially in todays corvid environment the last place you should be emptying your loo is in the public toilets