Overnight campers' action

I strongly urge you to support your local council. When all is clear and bans are in place  I will avoid the place like the plague and continue to favour spending my money over the water where we are always made very welcome.

I have nothing against councils banning on street parking for motorhomes as long as they provide proper parking places elsewhere within walking distance of facilities and attractions. Fortunately there are some enlightened councils in the UK and all is not yet lost.

peedee

Perhaps suitable facilities could be provided together with a reasonable overnight charge to help towards the cost.

I’m sorry MHs are becoming a problem in your eyes, Rufs, but please don’t tar us all with the same brush. I think you mean SOME motorhomers are causing problems. 

The situation in Exmouth could act as a template here. The parking of MHs overnight on the seafront has been banned but the council has provided dome dedicated long term spaces in a few car parks.

for those with 'green' chemical toilets (no fomaldehyde) you can empty safely into any toilet....we now only use bio washing pods...

ive actually seen car owners, stopped in laybys, 'stuffing their rubbish into bins'.....disgraceful, I know.....but surely better than leaving it all over the floor?

i would agree that roadside bins (pretty well everywhere) are not emptied anywhere nearly frequently enough to make them worthwhile, although we take our rubbish with us if there isn't sufficient bin space.

...and surprise, surprise, many local councils ask MH owners to pay for two spaces if they use them...

other than 'against the regs' overnighting, what gives a car owner more right to a parking space on any seafront when both have paid road tax...one probably more than the other?

hmm, you believe MHs are becoming a problem.....?

nice.

as above, if overnighting isn't allowed and MHs are doing it....book them, simple. no issue at all...

but if it's legal, surely that's fine too?

so why aren't cars parking on seafronts 'becoming a problem'?

i agree with Peedee that, if on street parking is banning MHs (though I see this as victimisation, unless it's overnighting that's banned) then the provision of a few MH spaces at the rear of local car parks costs next to nothing, as Exmouth has done and alluded to in TW's post above.

however, I much prefer the Continental approach where everyone, irrespective of vehicle type, is welcomed into every town and village, usually with dedicated MH parking but always with (usually free) shared parking.

so, if towns don't want us, I just go elsewhere...

if the UK doesn't want us, no problem either.

I know local councils are a bit cash strapped but providing an aire type facility for parking overnight then charging say £10 a night would bring in say £100 per night for 10 spaces.  Over a year assuming they are full every night that equates to over £30,000 so it would seem the payback would be within a year then it is profit all the way.  Add this to the money people would spend in the local economy even it is only another £10 per person equates to another £60,000 a year so it makes you wonder what these councils are thinking when they firstly stop MH overnight parking then do not add any provision for the loss.  Even providing MH bays for parking close to town or attractions would be a start, instead all we see are height barriers!!

Like PD & many others we are finding even for a short break of a  week we can get a cheap ferry crossing to the continent and recoup the cost being welcomed to the local community where we can park without fear or retribution from them many places for free.

Rufs

Surely the simplest answer is for the Council to ban overnight parking if that is perceived to be a real, rather than an imagined, problem. Or at the very least limit it to certain areas. We have had situations in the past where motorhomers have been blamed for things which turned out to be completely untrue! But the blame game helps convince those that have no understanding of the situation. Little bit disappointed that you don't seem to be sharing any solidarity with people share the same hobby as you. Someone in your situation could put forward a reasoned argument to Councillors explaining that some, even if short term, parking should be available?

David

"Being a caravaner I have never used an Aires, do the facilities that are provided officially within Europe get abused in the same way?" 

Rufs, I don't really know what your question above means....

aires are used by MHers for many reasons within the constraints (if there are any) of that provision...

sometimes they may just be allowed to park in the daytime, usually it will include overnighting. sometimes there is a time limit (24/48/72 hrs) but often, in small villages, not.

they dump their grey and toilet waste in the facilities provided...almost always but some Aires are parking with no services.

they put their dry waste into bins...sometimes these are full, as at home..

they fill with fresh water, if required....sometimes there is a small charge (€2 jeton) or free.

so, Aires can vary in their allowed usage, but I've never seen one 'abused' and can't imagine how they can be as they provide the services those using them require.

whilst I don't expect UK car parking to provide me with water and waste facilities, I'd expect decent bins (and to be emptied) and are happy to pay a sensible fee to park....in appropriate spaces.

however, I drive a taxed vehicle, which has as much right to be on a road as anyone else's and if parking is available and legal, why can't I use it with as much right as a 'local' or a car driver or, heaven forbid, a local car driver?

The problem is that we are all assuming that the folk who would use these areas would do so responsibly. However we all know that is not always the case. 

Just outside our village is a small car parking area, probably will take 9 cars if parked correctly. Its very popular with canoeists as there is a good access to the river Tay and the rapids there. 

We sometimes get a MH or 2 staying overnight on the car park, no problem as long if they leave it clean and tidy. If they don't then who is supposed to clear up the mess they leave and the damage they do to the area.

What about the house across from it if its not responsible folk, loud music, banging doors, loud voices etc. It does happen and its that kind of behaviour that will see a barrier go up if it continues.

The current trend of MH's will IMO continue to rise and some will by nature be freeloaders, while others (the majority) are law abiding citizens who are more than happy to spend £10 for a safe, clean place to park. Getting this message over to those who count is not an easy path. 

We unfortunately we see lots of the 'free loaders' in our area, because they think that access to the countryside and wild camping in Scotland is 'allowed' the former is true but the 'wild' camping is  about tents not MH's.

The mess and destruction of  hundreds if not thousands of MH's is doing to our roads and countryside is causing a backlash up here and it will come to a head soon if nothing is done about it. Its not just the coasts they congregate at.

I can understand Steve Dugan getting a bit twitchy if the residents of Cliff Road are giving him grief about MH's parked outside their houses but fail to see why a few MH's parked for the night along to the west of the Haven should be seen as problematic. Whilst I'm not going to be spending the night down there, it does make a pleasant spot to watch the world go by. As has been mentioned up thread, are MHomers now to be regarded as second class citizens when it comes to parking?  A similar situation pertains now with Havant BC with regard to overnight parking at West Hayling.

A not untypical response of local councillors who love to ban things, charge the earth for parking and then wonder why their High Streets are empty and the budget has a big hole in it.

Wouldn’t it be good if the Council said to themselves “there is a need here that we are not fulfilling. What can we do to improve the situation?”.