Resons why councils discourage motorhomers. Forums

Anonymous

I don't know the answer to this one chuggalugs - all I know is that it is damn right annoying. I think it is unfair for motorhomers to be singled out like this and there must be some kind of compromise from the local councils in order to make our towns and villages - especially tourist attraction areas more motorhome and campervan friendly. We pay our rates and taxes and we should be allowed to park up - at least for a few hours like everybody else can.

Like I said in my earlier post - I understand the problems that might arise and the fact that the councils do not want to encourage communes of travellers - but the ordinary motorhomer who uses his van for holidays and touring etc should not be penalised because of the minority and there must be some means of sorting the wheat from the chaff!

Shall we start up a petition?

Sonesta

Moondog

This summer whilst out locally in the Motorhome and looking for a dog walk we were confronted by two things yet another height barrier accross a rural car park and the local ammenities officer (or some such) inspecting his handywork. I asked,after explaining that i had never defaulted on one council tax payment and being willing to pay the car park fee why was he discriminating against my fully legal vehicle. (I can go on).

The answer seemed to be that as the local councill did not subscribe to some policy that actively involves its self in the welfare of'Travellers' and had no real sites for them to stay on they had to make certain they didnt settle on their patch.

Where shall i park then?
On that piece of waste ground over there but as its council property you will need to display a ticket.

Whilst waiting on Bleriot Plage Calais beach car park this spring for the dog's vet appointment i watched a burly Gendarme and his to young lady officers move a group of Travellers.

The two girls just banged and banged their nightsticks on the side of the 60ft Hymer and Hobby Caravans until the 'Travellers' left.No arguments allowed.

Sadly the car park now has height barriers.

RobMD

Travelers, Tinkers, call them what you may, won't be stopped by a gate or height barrier - they will just either destroy the barrier or force their way in and deny all knowlege of the damage.

Fire Risk? a car with a full tank of petrol is more prone to fire than a M/home with diesel and bottled gas - how many car versus commercial vehicle fires do you see? (and M/homes even less).

Income? If 2 people in a M/Home stay for even 1 night, it is likely they will either go out for dinner, replenish provisions, sightsee, top up with fuel etc. If we pass by that income is lost.

Security? We don't ask for dog patrols around our vans, just the normal security measures in place for the population as a whole.

Waste? How much waste do councils think we generate? probably less than average, and many of us are very environmentally aware.

Toilets? We have our own!

In my opinion, unless it is shown that Motorhomers are as important to their local economy as other tourists, we will treated as a nuisance rather than an asset.

Anonymous

We are Full Timers but we own 2 houses which we rent to family. We used to park on the path next to our main home until the council asked us to move it onto the road. We didn't want to cause traffic problems, so we moved it round to the other house and parked it on a parking space at the side of the house away from the main road. Someone, who obviously begrudges our hard earned lifestyle complained we were taking up too many parking spaces. There is room to park 12 vehicles. We take up 4 spaces, but there has only ever been 2 other cars parked there. We have had a running battle for the last 6 months with the council classing us as Gypsies or Travellers and wanting us to move to a council provided site (we wouldn't last 2 minutes with them). We are travellers of sorts I suppose. But I don't think we can be classed with the other type. Twisted Evil

PamNPete

Hi drifter interested to read the letter and I agree with some of the points

We live near Keswick and find many motorhomers turn away when they find that the parking is retricted to them (the spaces are too short and people get fined for overhanging the space)

So the town is loosing far more in lost trade than in empty B&B's. As most of the B&B's are already full especially in the summer months

Keswick is also busy with tourists in the winter months

I do understand about the 'travellers' who do not travel in motorhomes but in caravans

krystal

My parents used to live in Keswick - didn't have parking with their house and had to use the town centre car park for their Pilote. For this they paid 2 annual parking fees because they took up more than one parking space - but as anyone knows who visits Keswick, once you move your vehicle in the summer, you're very lucky to get a space any time soon. Result, especially during summer holidays, Convention week, Jazz week, Victorian Fair, half terms etc. they stopped using their van, because of the hassle parking it again. One van sold. Sad

Krystal

Grizzly

I'm sure it all comes down to a difference in attitude between the British and the French and Germans. Here we tend to look for the problems and legislate to avoid them. Hence all the " MHs banned because of possibility of fire / traveller invasion / improper use of public loos etc etc. On the continent they tend to come from the opposite direction : allow something and then, if it becomes a problem, do something about it.

I'm no expert on law making, here or anywhere else, but I suspect it all boils down to the fact that it takes a very long time to get a law or prohibition passed in UK and lots of money must be spent first. From my limited experience of living in a French commune, if the Mayor wanted to ban something then he did it overnight. I can imagine the fuss that would be made if the mayor here did likewise !

G

Barty

There is a lot of discrimination out there about M'Homes and their owners, I know by experience, while we attended York this year the local paper had an article about Motorhomes parking in the road in front of local residences, Note how much they valued the income from the show, employment for local people.
My neighbours have actively tried to force us to sell our van, by reporting to the DVLA my driving a motorhome while disabled, Still fighting this one.
Actively complaigning to the council about where we park, however the council admit that they cant insist we park elswhere.

johnsandywhite

Raisin

Do we really deserve to be treated any differently?

The Stopovers campaign run for many months and was supported by several Motor-home magazines and managed to get just 3000 signatures on their petition.

There are close to 8000 members of this forum, how many took an active part in the campaign?

There are estimated to be 80,000 motor-home owners in the UK, 3000 out of 80,000 is not a very good response.

The problem lies with NIMBYISM. How many on this forum, or others, really want a Stopover next to or across the road from their home? Personally I would not mind but most of my neighbours would be very much against it, some are even trying to stop the local bus service going past their houses.

I spoke to both Dundee City Council and the Tayside Tourist Board. To my surprise the council were far more sympathetic and pointed out that most of the Council Car Parks allow overnight parking as long as the parking fee is paid. Few of these carparks have height barriers. The Tourist Board were not really interested "In a few Motor Caravanners" their words not mine. There was no interest in either Municipal Sites, as in France, or Stopovers similar to those to be found in Eire.

Personally I am not sure what the answer is other than to use the existing site network.

Regards,

Mike